Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) Mattar Al Tayer, announced that construction works have reached 50% on the First Contract of Improvement of Airport Street Project covering Rashidiya & Casablanca Intersections. He also reported that completion rate had reached 40% for the Second Contract covering Nad Al Hamar and Marrakech Intersections. Al Tayer expects the 1st Phase of the Project to be opened in December this year, and the entire project, which has a cost tag of AED404 million to be completed in the first half of 2018.

Al Tayer made this statement following a recent inspection visit to the project site where he attended a briefing about the progress rate on each phase of the Project. Works completed so far include Al Khawaneej-bound Bridge at Al Rashidiya Intersection and one out of 5 bridges at Marrakech Intersection in the same direction. Works in a tunnel at Marrakech Intersection will start this July. The progress in construction works has reached 70% in the flyover at Nad Al Hamar Intersection, whereas completion rate in the flyover at Casablanca Intersection has reached 50%.

The Project comprises the construction of bridges, a tunnel at Marrakech Intersection, and bridges at Rashidiya Intersection as well as the Airport St. junctions with Casablanca St. and Nad Al Hamar St. It also includes improving at-grade intersections, and constructing a service road of 3 lanes in each direction to separate the traffic movement from and to Nad Al Hamar St. from the traffic on the Airport St. starting from Rashidiya Intersection up to Marrakech Intersection. The project will increase the capacity of the Airport St. by an additional 5000 vehicles per hour, enhance the traffic safety level, and reduce the transit time on the Airport St. from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road to Casablanca St. from 30 minutes to 5 minutes.

"The Improvement of Airport St. 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 Improvement of the Airport St. Project by the end of 2017," continued Al Tayer.

The Improvement of the Airport St. Project encompasses the Improvement of Rashidiya Intersection through constructing a bridge on the Airport St. of 3 lanes 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 St. heading towards the Airport St. The project will ease the current snarls resulting from the overlapping traffic at Nad Al Hamar Intersection between the first circular slopes heading to the left, from Nad Al Hamar St. to the Airport St. It will also ease the traffic movement on the second circular slope heading left, from the Airport St. to Nad Al Hamar St. The vehicular traffic on the first circular slope will be restricted to U-turns in the direction of Nad Al Hamar St.

"The Project also includes the improvement of Marrakech-Airport Streets intersection through 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, thus bypassing the waiting at the light signal. it also includes the construction of a tunnel of 2 lanes in each direction to serve the leftward-bound traffic from the Airport St. in the direction of Marrakech St., which will reduce the waiting time at the intersection from seven minutes to less than one minute."

Source: Khaleej Times