Doha - Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi visited the construction site of the New Orbital Highway and Truck Route, called The Orbital, and reviewed the progress in work on two segments of the project -- contract two and contract four.
Orbital is part of Ashghal's expressway projects linking areas north and south of Qatar.
The Minister was received by Eng Nasser bin Ali Al Mawlawi, President of the Public Works Authority (Ashghal), Eng Jalal Yousef Al Salhi, Director of Infrastructure Affairs, Eng Nasser Ghaith Al Kuwari, Manager of Ashghal's Expressway Department, and Abdulla Al Attiyah, Technical Office Manager at Ashghal.
The minister received a briefing on all four contracts of The Orbital Highway from the project's consulting and contracting representatives as well as Ashghal. Following the meeting, the minister went on to inspect the progress on contracts two and four and the milestones achieved so far in this vital project. The main lanes of contracts two and four will be open to traffic by the end of next year.
The Orbital Highway connects the south and north of Qatar. The project is located to the west, north and south of Doha, and will see the construction of around 200km of new dual carriageway from Mesaieed in the south to west of Al Khor in the north.
The Orbital road will include 22 main interchanges, including bridges and underpasses to connect the Orbital to the main roads and expressways of the East-West Corridor Project, Salwa Road, Dukhan Highway and Al Shamal Road.
When complete, the Orbital will provide better connectivity for Qatar's most important industrial areas -- Mesaieed, New Hamad Port, Dukhan, Al Khor and Ras Laffan, without the need to travel through the main residential communities of Al Wakrah, Doha and Al Khor.
Consisting of seven lanes in each direction, the new highway and truck route provides heavy vehicles with their separate roadways with two truck lanes in each direction, allowing smooth and safe traffic along main expressways. The Orbital is designed to manage up to 1500 heavy good vehicles per hour in each direction; it can cater for general traffic volumes at about 8,000 vehicles an hour in each direction.
Major infrastructure works of the project include a storm water drainage network, treated sewage effluent networks for irrigation, communications networks, street lighting and Intelligent Transport System.
The project will also provide service infrastructure, including underpasses for camels, weighing stations, side road parking bays, green landscape and metal beam guardrails along the road. Contract two starts at Salwa Road, passing through Dukhan Highway and North Road up to North Relief Road.
It encompasses about 48km of a new dual carriageway consisting of seven lanes in each direction and includes eight two-level interchanges.
Contract four consists of 42km from Dukhan Road to west of Al Khor City and includes five multi-level interchanges -- Local Access Road, Gharrafa Road, Al Mazroo'a Road, Al Khor Link Road and North Road.
© The Peninsula 2016
