Dubai RTA awards £110m road contracts

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Dubai RTA awards £110m road contracts

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority announces that it has awarded a Dh404-million ($110 million) contract for upgrade of the Airport Road which once completed will cut the travel time on this road substantially.

The project involves the construction of bridges, tunnels at Rashidiya and Airport Road interchange with each of Casablanca St, Marrakech St. and Nad Al Hamar St. It also includes improving at-grade intersections, and constructing a service road of 3 lanes in each direction to separate the traffic movement from and to Nad Al Hamar from the vehicular flow on the Airport Street starting from Rashidiya Interchange up to Marrakech Interchange, said a statement from RTA.

The project will contribute to increasing the handling capacity of the Airport Road by an extra 5000 vehicles per hour.

It will also enhance the traffic safety level, and reduce the journey time on the Airport Road from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road to Casablanca Street, it added.

Mattar Al Tayer, the director general and chairman of the board of executive directors at the RTA, said: “The upgrading of the Airport Road is part of a plan developed by the RTA to cater to the projected growth in the number of travellers to the Dubai International Airport; which is expected to serve about 92 million travellers by 2020.”

According to him, the traffic study emphasized the importance of accomplishing the Airport Upgrading project by 2017.

“The improvement of Rashidiya Interchange comprises the construction of a bridge on the Airport Road of three lanes in each direction; which is expected to slash the waiting time at the interchange from 13 minutes to less than one minute,” explained Al Tayer.

“The upgrading of the Airport Road – Nad Al Hamar Road Interchange encompasses the construction of an additional bridge of two lanes in each direction to serve the traffic coming from Nad Al Hamar heading towards the Airport Road.

The project will ease the current snarls resulting from the overlapping traffic at Nad Al Hamar Interchange between the first circular slope heading to the left, from Nad Al Hamar Road to the Airport Road, and the second circular slope heading left, from the Airport Road to Nad Al Hamar Road.

Vehicular traffic on the first circular slope will be restricted to U-turns in the direction of Nad Al Hamar,” added Al Tayer.

The upgrading of Marrakech Street – Airport Road Interchange includes the construction of a flyover on the Airport Road of three lanes in each direction along with a ramp from the bridge in the direction of Terminal 3 of the Dubai International Airport bypassing the traffic signal, stated RTA.

The project also includes the construction of a two-lane tunnel to serve the traffic heading left from the Airport Road in the direction of Marrakech Street thus reducing the waiting time at the interchange from seven minutes to less than one minute, it added.

Al Tayer said the RTA was proceeding ahead with the upgrading of the infrastructure of road networks and mass transit systems in Dubai, and figuring out integrated solutions for land and marine transit systems that are safe for users, compatible with the Dubai Strategic Plan 2021.

Source: Trade Arabia

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