The Darsait-Wadi Kabir road expansion work has picked up pace with Muscat Municipality workers felling trees and shaving off mountainsides for the Qurm Heights Road leg of the project that hopes to ease traffic movement in Ruwi.
A municipality official said that additional lanes on the existing Darsait-Wadi Kabir road are being planned as it runs through CBD.
"Cutting mountains and trees along the existing road will provide space for widening," the official said.
"This is in addition to a flyover planned at the Wadi Kabir roundabout. Traffic lights will be installed at the spot where the roundabout once stood. We will also have an intersection opposite the Sheraton Hotel and an underpass will also be built to allow easy traffic flow between Darsait and Wadi Kabir," he said.
The routes to Darsait and Wadi Kabir will be separated from the ones leading to Muttrah and Muscat. There are similar plans for routes from Darsait and Wadi Kabir to Qurm.
"Starting from Darsait to Wadi Kabir, the highway will be widened with the planned addition of a lane on either side. There will be two more lanes for Muttrah-bound traffic," the official added. The municipality has marked services lanes that will be affected by the project and is identifying ways to determine how the routes could be diverted.
The project includes the expansion and extension of the flyover over the Hassan ibn Thabit School intersection till the one at Stars Cinema.
A new underpass for vehicles will come up near the Sheraton Hotel in addition to a four-way traffic intersection.
© Muscat Daily 2012
