* North Bridge at Duhail Interchange
* Second flyover at Umm Lekhba Interchange
* New interchange (Lekhwiya) on Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor
* Wadi Al Banat Interchange on Al Khor Road
With the stage set for Qatar National Day, the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has joined the celebrations by announcing the opening of four vital projects.
North Bridge at Duhail Interchange and Wadi Al Banat Interchange on Al Khor Road were opened to traffic on Friday while the interchange connecting Rasheeda Street with Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor (formerly known as Lekhwiya Roundabout) will be opened on Qatar National Day and the second bridge at Umm Lekhba Interchange will go operational by the end of December, according to Ashghal.
These were announced in the presence of Youssef al-Emadi, director of Projects Affairs, Bader Darwish, manager of the Expressway Projects Department, Brig Mohamed Marafih, director of Engineering at the Traffic Safety Department, and several engineers from Ashghal and representatives of the contracting companies.
While announcing the opening, Ashghal president Dr Saad bin Ahmed al-Muhannadi said these were opened on the occasion of National Day, in line with the directives of HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani who was closely following the implementation of various projects and urging for speedy completion.
He noted that North Bridge created a record as it has been opened within just nine months by a Qatari contractor using local materials amounting to around 60% of the total.
He added that Ashghal is keen to complete all proposed projects based on the priorities, noting that Ashghal could announce the opening of projects on Saturday in four different regions.
Al-Emadi said Ashghal adopted a specific strategy to manage various infrastructure projects. “The strategy is to complete vital parts of the project and open them one by one rather than waiting for total completion. This strategy has been proved successful,” he said, noting that vital parts of Al Khor Road, including the main carriageway and three vital interchanges, were opened in March while seven interchanges followed later.
Darwish said Ashghal has completed works of more than 150km of the highway network during 2019 as the year witnessed the opening of vital roads such as Al Khor Road, Al Majd Road and vital parts of various other projects.
He pointed out that Ashghal has taken great strides in completing highway projects and completed 72% of the Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor project. He added that works on North Bridge were completed within a record time even though they started only in March. “Works were completed three months prior to the deadline,” he said.
Works on the 200m-long North Bridge were also completed within nine months after they began in March. The new bridge has five lanes in the northbound direction and four lanes in the southbound direction. It will provide free traffic flow with a vehicle capacity of 12,000-18,000 per hour in both directions.
Umm Lekhba Interchange with a length of 537m provides free traffic flow from Al Markhiya towards 22 February Street to the south of Doha. It connects traffic from Al Markhiya to Doha in the direction of Al Gharrafa Interchange (Passport Interchange) and 22 February Street. It will improve traffic by accommodating 4,000 vehicles per hour.
The new interchange at Al Rasheeda Street and Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor is built after converting the Lekhwiya Roundabout into a two-level interchange. It includes a signalised intersection in all directions, along with opening a part of the longest bridge in Qatar, 1km long above the intersection, to provide free traffic flow from the Al Mukafaha Intersection with Al Rayyan Road towards Al Waab and to reduce travel time by more than 50%. The bridge here can accommodate more than 4,000 vehicles per hour.
Wadi Al Banat Interchange, which is part of Al Khor Road, now has seven operational interchanges out of a total of 10 interchanges.
The new two-level interchange consists of four bridges with 150m length each. The two main bridges deliver three lanes while two others deliver four lanes. It has two loops, four ramps with two lanes each and four underpasses.
