Transit time on Dubai’s Ras Al Khor Road will be slashed from 20 minutes to seven when the Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Corridor Improvement Project is completed. The road’s capacity will increase to 10,000 vehicles per hour.
The project is now 75 per cent complete, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced. The project extends 8km along the Ras Al Khor Road from the intersection of Dubai-Al Ain Road to that of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road. Works include constructing bridges extending 2km, widening Ras Al Khor Road from three to four lanes in each direction, and building two-lane service roads on both sides. The project aims to enhance traffic safety and flow, and eliminate the existing overlapping traffic spots.
“The project serves a host of major development projects inhabited by 650,000 residents: The Lagoons, Dubai Creek, Meydan Horizon, Ras Al Khor, Al Wasl, and Nad Al Hamar Complex,” said Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, RTA.
“The project also includes improving the intersection of Nad Al Hamar Road with Ras Al Khor Road to enhance its capacity to 30,000 vehicles per hour by constructing a two-lane bridge extending 988 metres to enable free left-side turns of traffic inbound from Nad Al Hamar Road heading in the direction of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road.”
It also involves the construction of another two-lane bridge extending 115 metres to serve the traffic inbound from Nad Al Hamar heading to Ras Al Khor Road in the direction of Dubai-Al Ain Road. Works include the construction of a two-lane tunnel extending 368 metres to enable right-side turns from Ras Al Khor Road to Nad Al Hamar, improving the existing intersection, and widening the existing turns.
The Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Corridor Improvement Project is one of the biggest undertaken by the RTA. “In future, it will include the construction of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Crossing; a bridge crossing over the Dubai Creek to link Al Jaddaf in Bur Dubai with the street extending between Dubai Creek Project and Dubai Festival City,” said Al Tayer.
The project has been divided into multiple phases. Last year, the RTA completed the construction of a three-lane bridge extending 740 metres leading to the Western entrance to Dubai Creek - Dubai Creek Harbour. The bridge connects the traffic inbound from Dubai - Al Ain Road and Al Khail Road, heading east to the Dubai Creek - Dubai Creek Harbour, with a capacity of 7,500 incoming vehicles per hour.
“RTA has also constructed a new 1.5-kilometre road of four lanes in each direction along with entry and exit points to and from the newly completed areas and buildings to facilitate the movement of traffic inbound from Nad Al Hamar-Ras Al Khor Roads intersection.
“The new roads and bridges network contributed to streamlining the traffic flow to the newly completed housing units at Dubai Creek, by linking them with the surrounding roads. The new roads were fitted with a lighting network of 108 streetlight poles. Works are currently underway in the construction of a 640-metre bridge to ensure a smooth traffic movement from Dubai Creek Harbour project towards Ras Al Khor Road with a capacity of about 3,100 vehicles per hour,” said Al Tayer.