Last of airport road bridges to open on Friday
Opening of three new bridges brings the Airport road project to the final stage
Opening of three bridges brings the expansion project to the final stages of completion
Bringing the Airport Road expansion project to the final stages of completion, three bridges will open for traffic on April 27, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced yesterday.
Easing the commute on the busy highway, the final major portion of the project, a twolane underpass to serve traffic heading leftward from Airport Road in the direction of Marrakech Road, will open in July.
With the opening of the three bridges, all bridges in the project across four interchanges, will be open for traffic.
The most important of the three bridges to open next Friday is a two-lane bridge serving traffic from Nad Al Hamar Road to Airport Road.
“This bridge will ease the snarls resulting from the overlapping traffic at Nad Al Hamar Interchange between the first circular slope heading leftward from Nad Al Hamar Road to Airport Road, and the second circular slope heading leftward from Airport Road to Nad Al Hamar Road,” said Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA.
Travel time to be cut
The second bridge will be part of the Marrakech Interchange, heading from the junction to Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport, giving motorists direct access to the terminal without waiting at the junction. The last bridge to open will be the flyover leading to the premises of the Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects.
Airport Road has been undergoing a major upgrade since mid-2016 and is set to complete by July.
Once completed, the travel time on the road is expected to fall from 30 minutes to five minutes.
The Dh404-million project is part of a series of infrastructure and mass transit upgrades in Dubai, realising the Dubai Strategic Plan 2021.
“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 up to 92 million passengers by 2020,” said Al Tayer.
The RTA has been completing the upgrades in stages, with several sections of the road opening last year.
In January this year, a sixlane flyover at the Rashidiya Road intersection opened for traffic in both directions, ensuring a smooth flow of traffic in the direction of Deira as well as Al Khawaneej.