Completion rate of Airport St. improvement project hits 30%

Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Roads and Transport Authority, RTA, has announced the completion of 30 percent of the first contract for the improvement of Airport Street involving the construction of Rashidiya and Casablanca interchanges.

The completion rate has reached 25 percent in other contract covering Nad Al Hamar and Marrakech interchanges.

Al Tayer made this statement during an inspection visit to the Airport Street Interchanges Improvement Project costing AED404 million. During the tour, Al Tayer was accompanied by Engineer Maitha bin Adai, CEO of Traffic and Roads Agency, Engineer Nabeel Mohammed Saleh, Director of Roads as well as several directors and engineers of the Agency.

"RTA has charted out a comprehensive plan for traffic diversions to ensure a smooth traffic flow. It has diverted traffic in both directions of Rashidiya Street, and work is currently progressing in bridge works and the shifting of the existing utility lines. The work area has been fully separated by a high barrier to muffle the noise as much as possible from disturbing road users and residents of nearby areas. The traffic will be diverted at Marrakech and Casablanca intersections by the end of this month, and the contractor is currently working on bridges at the intersections of Nad Al Hamar, Marrakech and Casablanca in concurrence with the shifting of utility lines,'' said Al Tayer.

''The RTA is always keen to ensure that the design of the temporary diversion is identical to the design of permanent roads in terms engineering design, and levels of the surface and the asphalt, and the provision of sufficient lighting matching to the designed road speed to ensure the safety of users. The diversion maintains the same number of lanes to ensure a smooth traffic flow without negatively impacting the traffic volumes to avoid any snarls," stated Al Tayer.

He stressed the importance of continuously reviewing, monitoring and evaluating traffic diversions to avoid traffic congestions during the project, which serves Dubai Airport, and several other hotspots in the downtown area. He directed to increase the number of engineers, supervisors and workers to step up the work progress and ensure timely completion of the project.

"The Airport Road Improvement Project is part of a plan set by the RTA for accommodating the projected growth in the number of passengers using the Dubai International Airport which is expected to shoot to 92 million passengers by 2020. Thus the traffic study highlighted the importance of finalizing the improvement of the Airport Road by 2017," continued Al Tayer.

"The project comprises the construction of bridges, a tunnel at the intersection of Marrakech, and bridges at the intersection of Rashidiya as well as the intersections of the Airport St. with Casablanca St. and Nad Al Hamar St. It also includes improving at-grade intersections, and constructing a service road of three lanes in each direction to separate the traffic movement from and to Nad Al Hamar St. from the vehicular flow on the Airport Street starting from Rashidiya Intersection up to Marrakech Intersection.'' The project,he added, would contribute to increasing the capacity of the Airport St. by an additional 5000 vehicles per hour. It will also enhance the traffic safety level and reduce the journey time on the Airport St. from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed St. to Casablanca St. from 30 minutes to five minutes. The improvement of Rashidiya Intersection comprises the construction of a bridge on the Airport St. 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," commented Al Tayer.

"The project also includes the construction of a flyover of three lanes in each direction on the Airport St. along with a ramp stretching from the bridge directly to Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport, bypassing the waiting at the light signal. A tunnel of two lanes in each direction is under construction to serve the leftward-bound traffic movement from the Airport St. to the direction of Marrakech St., which reduces the waiting time at the junction from seven minutes to less than one minute.

"The upgrading of the Airport St.-Casablanca St. Intersection includes the construction of an additional single-lane bridge to serve the traffic from the Airport St. in the direction of Casablanca St. without waiting at the light signal. It also includes the construction of an alternative street for traffic coming from Al Garhoud enabling vehicles direct access to Terminal 1 and 3 of the Dubai International Airport, besides increasing the number of lanes of Casablanca St. in the direction of Al Garhoud from 3 to 4 lanes.

"The project will also reduce the total waiting time at Casablanca St. from three minutes to one minute, and ease tailbacks generated by the overlapping movement of vehicles heading towards Casablanca Interchange and those coming from Terminal 1 heading towards Casablanca St.," added the Director General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA.

"RTA is proceeding ahead with the upgrading of the infrastructure of road networks and mass transit systems in Dubai Emirate by figuring out integrated solutions for land and marine transit systems that are safe for users and compatible with the Dubai Strategic Plan 2021. Such solutions are intended to respond to the needs of hosting Expo 2020, demographic growth, and contribute to the development and investments in the Emirate," he concluded.