IN A major initiative to ease traffic congestion and raise the capacity of roads in Dubai, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced the completion of eight road and bridge projects that will accommodate traffic flow up to 2020.

These include the opening of the Financial Centre Road comprising four lanes in each direction, raising the road capacity to 16,000 vehicles per hour. A new bridge over Al Khail Road has also been opened to serve the traffic flow inbound from Interchange 1 at Sheikh Zayed Road and Dubai Mall area towards Al Khail Road extending in the east-west direction in a four-lane corridor.
Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of the board and executive director of RTA, said that before the end of this year several projects, including the penultimate phase of Dubai bypass road widening and improvement project, the Al Qudrah Bridge, Murdiff junction, entry and exit points of bridges leading to Dubai Metro Rashidiya Station and Phase Two of Al Ittihad road improvement, will be completed.
“Opening of the Financial Centre Road is crucial for easing traffic in an area that’s witnessing key development projects. This will also help boost the road intake, particularly the vehicular movements from Sheikh Zayed Road and Jumeirah towards Al Khail Road through the east-west corridor,” he said.
“The Financial Centre Road, which consists of four lanes in each direction, also includes two extra lanes in the direction from Sheikh Zayed Road to Al Khail Road at the entrance of Dubai Mall. To further integrate the roads network, two tunnels have been added to ensure seamless traffic flow on the junction of eastern and western parallel roads with the Financial Centre Road.
“Bridge 2 at Al Ittihad Road, a two-lane bridge extending 500 m, was also opened for traffic in the direction from Sharjah to Dubai International Airport, with a capacity to handle 4,000 vehicles per hour,” said Al Tayer.
The opening of the bridge and the tunnel is part of Phase Two of Al Ittihad Road improvement project, which also comprises the construction of a 520-m-long four-lane tunnel at the junction of the airport road with Sheikh Rashid Road and two flyovers, each consisting of two lanes, at that junction.
One flyover is for vehicles inbound from HQ Interchange and outbound to the airport extending 500 m and the other for traffic inbound from Al Garhoud Bridge and outbound to Deira extending 625 m.
The existing tunnel will be transformed into a one-way tunnel for vehicles inbound from HQ Interchange and bound to Al Garhoud Bridge, in addition to widening of the road sector from Al Garhoud Interchange leading to Al Ittihad Road, to ensure traffic flow up to 2020.