DUBAI - The first phase of a major road project that will connect Bur Dubai and Deira via a third bridge over Dubai Creek in the Al Khor area, is scheduled to begin later next month, sources at Dubai Municipality told Khaleej Times yesterday.
According to the sources, the tendering procedure of the project was conducted earlier this month and the Dh351 million first phase, which includes the new bridge, will begin in September this year.
Known as the Ras Al Khor Project, the undertaking constitutes, apart from another crossing over the creek, a new 15-kilometre elaborate corridor stretching from the First Interchange on Shaikh Zayed Road all the way to the presently under-construction Airport Tunnel. The design stage of the project was carried out earlier this year.
The new bridge over the creek would have a total of 12 lanes, six of which would be dedicated to traffic on the expressway. Located 1.5km east of the Al Garhoud Bridge, the crossing would be a physically separated bridge, complete with an interchange consisting two loops at the end of the bridge for motorists to exit the highway. With a height of 19 metres, the proposed crossing would have a higher clearance than Maktoum Bridge and Garhoud Bridge, and as such will not be an open span bridge.
A part of the new corridor, which will start at the First Interchange on Shaikh Zayed Road, will connect to the Al Khail Road (Back Road), while the other would continue ahead, linking with Oud Metha Road and the Zabeel(2) Road through an interchange. From the Interchange at Zabeel(2) Road, an offshoot of the network will connect with the existing interchange at the Al Qatayat Road. The main artery would connect to Al Jaddaf before crossing over Dubai Creek towards Al Rabat Road and finally joining with the Airport Tunnel via the Naad Al Hamar Road.
The road project involves the construction of a number of junctions, which will all be free-flow without signals to ensure a smooth flow of traffic all the way from the First Interchange at Shaikh Zayed Road to the Airport Tunnel. A total of seven major interchanges would be constructed as part of the Ras Al Khor Project.
The development of the new corridor is expected to ease traffic on the busy Shaikh Zayed Road, the other two crossings over the creek at Al Garhoud Bridge and Al Maktoum Bridge, the Shindagha tunnel, and on other roads leading to the Northern Emirates. The new corridor, according to the municipality figures, would serve the projected increase in traffic volumes of Dubai till 2020.By Zaigham Ali Mirza
© Khaleej Times 2004
