Dubai - Traffic between the two emirates of Sharjah and Dubai is a headache for commuters as the sheer volume of cars seems to be getting worse by the day.

But authorities have assured that the traffic situation is being addressed, and that by August 2018, a nine-lane bridge will be open and traffic will be diverted away from heavily congested routes, such as the Al Ittihad Road and the Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed (MBZ) Road.  

The UAE’s Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MoID) recently announced that a Dh200 million bridge on Emirates Road is under construction at Sharjah's Al Badea area.

“The project will be completed by the third quarter of 2018 and once completed, will increase the capacity of the road from 9,900 vehicles per hour to 17,700 vehicles per hour,” said Ahmad Al Hammadi, director of the roads department at the MoID.

The bridge is located between Emirates Road and the Maleha highway, which consists of six lanes on Emirates Road and three lanes on the Sharjah-Maleha Road.

“The bridge will contribute to reducing the journey time for motorists, and will solve the problem of traffic congestion coming from Dubai in the evening due to the slow trucks heading towards Sharjah and the northern emirates,” he said.

Al Hammadi explained that the project aims to expand Emirates Road from three to six lanes and to also repair damaged parts of the road at Intersection No.7 on the Al Dhaid-Maleha Road.

Reporting by Mariam M. Al Serkal

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