Eng. Yousef Abdulrahman Al Emadi, Projects Affairs Director |
Badr Mohamed Darwish, Assistant Manager of Highway Projects Department |
The Public Works Authority (Ashghal)'s project works are continuing without any interruption despite the unjust blockade or Covid-19, and strong evidence of this can be found in the opening of the Duhail-Al Gharrafa Bridge and a section of traffic signals six months ahead of schedule.
This was stressed by Yousef al-Emadi, director of Projects Affairs, on Saturday when Ashghal announced the openings.
Al-Emadi told Gulf Times that Ashghal continued its race towards completing various infrastructure projects despite the challenges. “All projects are continuing at the right pace,” he said, exuding confidence in completing the ongoing projects before their deadline.
He also noted how the authority sets priorities for major projects that serve large sections of people.
On the challenges posed by Covid-19, he said the contractors faced some shortage in terms of manpower but proper planning and expedited works helped them overcome these issues. “Things were appropriately planned and we were ahead of schedule when the crisis started to hit. The works were sped up and we kept up the pace,” he said, adding that the main reasons for achieving the completion of works before the deadline are the construction methodology and availability of materials.
“We study and assess the construction methodology with contractors before starting the works. The ways of reducing the time taken (to carry out the works) are discussed while Ashghal ensures the availability of materials,” al-Emadi said, thanking the contractors for being fully co-operative.
Ashghal on Saturday announced the opening of the Duhail-Al Gharrafa bridge and a section of the traffic signals within the Duhail Interchange Development Project on Shamal Road. The opening comes six months ahead of schedule and coincides with the opening of schools for the new, 2020-2021 academic year.
Dignitaries present at the opening included al-Emadi; Bader Darwish, Highway Projects Department assistant manager; Mubarak bin Freish Mubarak Alsalem, CMC member (Constituency No 15); Ali bin Khalaf Majrin al-Kubaisi, CMC member (Constituency No 3); and other officials from Ashghal and the contracting company concerned.
Al-Salem stressed that the new openings would mostly benefit people residing in Al Gharrafa and Gharrafat Al Rayyan, as well as those visiting vital facilities in the region. The area houses many schools and commercial entities, he said, praising Ashghal for its efforts to complete the project in "record time".
Al-Kubaisi said the Duhail Interchange is located in a vital area, in the heart of densely populated zones such as Duhail, Al Markhiya and Al Gharrafa.
Meanwhile, Ashghal engineer Saad al-Dousari stressed that almost 60% of materials used in the project works are locally manufactured in Qatar, such as iron, concrete, fittings and most of the asphalt works. These included some 207,000 tonnes of asphalt, about 53,000 cubic metres of reinforced concrete and 14,128 tonnes of iron.
Ashghal is proud that it could promote local production while implementing its projects, al-Emadi noted.
A number of infrastructure services were also developed within the scope of the project, including 10,722m of rainwater drainage and sewage network to prevent the accumulation of water during the rainy season and 14,205m for laying the treated water network and irrigation pipes, besides the extension of 16.8km of electricity networks.