With reference to your letter KAUST-M&U-14-0069 dated September 15, 2014, SAPMT sent a letter L-004/12 dated October 21, 2012 mentioning that the option to upgrade existing security gates at gate 2 and 3 shall be evaluated during the detailed design phases. This has been done. The decision to build new security gates was made during the 50% design review meetings which were attended and commented by various representatives from KAUST. The project designer showed how the upgrade was not possible and SAPMT and KAUST jointly arrived at the following conclusions; 1.	The existing gates cannot be made blast proof without demolishing and reconstructing them, due to the fact that the structures had to be redesigned. 2.	Various new buildings and systems (e.g. QRT building, JFCC building, K-9 area, X-ray systems, UVIS room etc) could not be added to existing gates due to lack of space. If the location of existing gates were to be used, some buildings would be placed outside the secure area, which defeats the security requirements. 3.	KAUST security operations will be compromised heavily during the re-construction because existing facilities and roadways will not be usable. Therefore, and based on the above, SAPMT will carry on with the construction of the new gatehouses so that the schedule is not impacted. Should you have any questions, please contact Sohail Moughal, Project Engineer at (012)