Faster access to Dubai Airport
Dubai: Phase one of the Airport Road expansion project will be ready by the end of this year with the entire redeveloped freeway to open for traffic by mid-2018, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced on Saturday. Work on the Dh404-million project includes construction of several multi-level intersections, with almost half of the work on most intersections completed.

Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, announced on Saturday that 50 per cent work on the development of Al Rashidiya-Casablanca Road intersections has been completed, while the Nad Al Hamar and Marrakech Road intersections are also 40 per cent ready. Al Tayer assured that the first phase of the project will open in December this year, while the entire project is likely to be ready in the first half of 2018. He issued the statement following a recent inspection visit to the project site where he attended a briefing about the progress on each phase of the project.

Work completed so far include Al Khawaneej-bound bridge at Al Rashidiya intersection and one of the five bridges at Marrakech Road intersection in the same direction.Work on a tunnel at Marrakech intersection will start later this month.He said the progress in construction work has reached 70 per cent in the flyover at Nad Al Hamar intersection, whereas completion rate in the flyover at Casablanca intersection has reached 50 per cent.The project comprises construction of bridges and a tunnel at Marrakech Road intersection, and bridges at Al Rashidiya intersection as well as the Airport Road junctions with Casablanca Street and Nad Al Hamar Street.

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 Street from the traffic on the Airport Road starting from Al Rashidiya intersection up to Marrakech Road intersection.“The Improvement of Airport Road Project is part of RTA’s plans to accommodate 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 finalising the project by the end of 2017,” said Al Tayer.



Bridges and Roads

The Airport Road project also includes the improvement of Al Rashidiya intersection by constructing a three-lane bridge in each direction, which is expected to slash the waiting time at the intersection from 13 minutes to less than one minute. It also includes upgrading the intersection of the Airport–Nad Al Hamar Streets through the construction of an additional bridge of two lanes in each direction to serve the traffic from Nad Al Hamar Street heading towards the Airport Road. The project will ease the current snarls resulting from the overlapping traffic at Nad Al Hamar Road intersection between the first circular slopes heading to the left, from Nad Al Hamar Street to the Airport Road. It will also ease the traffic movement on the second circular slope heading left, from the Airport Road to Nad Al Hamar Street.

A six-lane flyover is also being built on Marrakech Road-Airport Road intersection, along with a ramp stretching from the bridge directly to Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport. Work also includes the construction of a tunnel of two lanes in each direction to serve the leftward-bound traffic from the Airport Road in the direction of Marrakech Street, which will reduce the waiting time at the intersection from seven minutes to less than one minute.

The expansion will increase the capacity of the Airport Road by an additional 5,000 vehicles per hour, while also enhancing the traffic safety level. The new road will help reduce the transit time on the Airport Road from Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road to Casablanca Street from 30 minutes to five minutes.

SOURCE: http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/transport/faster-access-to-dubai-airport-soon-1.2051586