Traffic diverted to new lanes on Emirates Road in RAK
ras al khaimah — Traffic has been diverted to new lanes on Emirates Road at the under-construction Badea intersection in the direction from Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah. The diversion started on February 3 and will continue until August this year, according to a senior official of the ministry of infrastructure development.
Ahmed Al Hammadi, manager of the roads department at the ministry, said the move is aimed to revamp the existing streets and start the excavation works of the middle part of the ongoing subway. “Up to 73 per cent of the Dh200-million project has been completed, while the project is expected to be wrapped up in the third quarter of 2018.”
The company in charge of the project has so far finished the three external lanes in both directions starting from the Badea bridge and until Bridge No 7 over a distance of 7km, he added.
“The traffic movement shall be diverted to these lanes after constructing the three internal lanes.”
The new bridge will further attract the traffic flow from the northern and eastern emirates heading towards Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Al Hammadi added.
“The project will significantly boost the capacity of the road from 9,900 to 17,700 vehicles per hour in all directions — which means 7,800 more vehicles.”
The bridge will connect the Emirates Road and Sharjah-Maliha Road. “It shall be a critical traffic bridge being one of the major five crossways between the emirates of Dubai and Sharjah.”
The extensive capacity of the bridge gives it more importance due to the several lanes on it, he added. “The bridge consists of six lanes on the Emirates Road and three lanes on the Sharjah-Maliha Road.”
ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com