Key road opening a boon to motorists
Key road opening a boon to motorists
By Sarmad Qazi/Staff Reporter
The February 22-Amir Street road was opened to traffic yesterday, marking a major milestone in the ambitious QR15bn Doha Expressway project.
Hundreds of vehicles sped off on the roads leading from the intersection soon after it was declared open in the evening.
The completion of this phase of the project now offers commuters absolute use of two-way, non-stop, high speed (120kph maximum) access from Tadamon Roundabout (D-Ring Road) all the way to Landmark Mall Intersection over a three- and four-lane high-grade surface, significantly reducing travel time from an hour to just minutes.
Also opened was a 6km stretch of February 22 and Amir Street, part of phases 1 and 2 of the Doha Expressway, from near the Omar Bin Khattab Mosque to Giant Store near Al Mirqab Street.
Earlier, the hundreds of motorists had started gathering at the Immigration Intersection from 4pm for the opening of the crucial road which is expected to bring immediate relief to traffic in nearby areas and greater Doha.
Senior officials from Public Works Authority (Ashghal), Lakhwiya, Traffic Department led the way aboard a Karwa bus and encircled the 6km stretch.
The project was, however, delayed by months. Work on the stretch had stopped in August 2009, after Ashghal and main contractor ran into a dispute.
The activity resumed with the Ashghal awarding the contracts to three Doha-based contractors, Boom Construction, Bin Omran Trading and Qatar Asphalt Company.
“When we got to the worksite it was approximately 60% completed. We have since then been eager to finish this crucial road for people in Madina Khalifa and Doha,” Boom Construction Company pavement construction manager Hazem Moghrabi told Gulf Times.
“Our part of the work included several road layers, asphalt and some draining as well as water works,” Moghrabi added.
The design of the phase 1 and 2 highway also includes four interchanges with Omar Bin Khattab and Rayyan Street opened now while work was still being done on Jowan (Centrepoint) and Sadd.
The opened portion now connects the Al Rayyan Street to Doha Expressway and has been achieved with four levels, including an 800m-long tunnel with a three-lane dual carriageway; Rayyan bridge with a two-lane, 800m dual carriageway towards New Rayyan Street and a link road with two lanes of 380m between 22 February Street and Rayyan Street, as well as roundabouts serving three rotational motion in all directions and eventually re-creating 1800m of Rayyan Road.
The project also saw the construction of a tunnel in the direction of Mecca Street (900m) and was opened earlier in February.
The Sadd Interchange includes reconstruction of the 1,200m-long Sadd Street intersecting the Doha Expressway and building the Sadd Tunnel with a two-lane dual carriageway.
The Jowan Interchange includes reconstruction of the street over 1km to intersect the expressway, in addition to a signalled intersection as well as 700m three-lane dual carriageway.
Source: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362925...
I stay in Gharrafa and work in Abu Hamur..the drive save me 30 mins a day and no stress of traffic and traffic lights
Not as exciting as the day Dukhan to Doha road was finally finished! 3 years of driving through sand and cones and now have 4 lanes 45 minute trip
Thanks God for this road. Lord knows we all needed it very badly
from dafna to salwa in 15-20 mins! what a relief!
than you used to be!
anybody can share a sketch map of this road for us to familiarize the routes ..thank you!!
Yea and actually for the past three days I have been trying to figure out alternative roads to my work and always ending up late becasue of the big differences in time than the road used to take! errrr!
from the airport going to Dafna. Really a good road and definitely an improvement.
And Jazzy, it's not the problem of new road opening. Any new thing starts with little hassles. It so happened that both you and the Observer were the affected one. I hope those unfortunate incidents (coming late to office) will never happen again as you are aware now that the new road is already open for public use! Good morning!
Ashghal is great :)
I drove to Landmark the other day, it was much closer: NO STOPPING!
When will they complete it to the airport, not just to Al-Ali roundabout (previously Tadamon)
looks fast, can't wait for the first accident.
DoToo.... Source Plz ??? ;)
maximum limit 80 :(((
ahhh you just cannot please everyone...
Hey Observer i got the same kinda situation actually had emergency in ma office n it took me almost 30min late to fix a critcal issue... I back you bigtime...
Dear Flor dont B so Glad coz u neva know.. the Earth goes round.. speically in RING ROAD Infrastructure.. lolz
not happy. Poor you!
it tooks only 10 mins from Mall Round Aboud to LandMark...ONLY 10 MINS!! but i didnt notice the Cameras WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH..LOLS!
I ALMOST LOST MY JOB BECAUSE OF THIS ROAD OPINING!
I come daily from my house to my work at slawa road through this road before it was completely open it had a U turn to exit to slawa road! today I was surprised to see them erased the U turn forcing me to go all the way to khalifa and being late to work for 35 mints!! they have to make an exit from this high way at Midmac intersection or I will never drive through it!
Personally I prefer they never completed it and kept the U turn!
PWA-ASHGHAL!
It was long due and in the end nice work! Hoping it survive the coming rainy season.
Not really , there are no plans for any new road openings in the D ring road. In fact , all pending exit routes is planned to be completed within the few upcoming weeks. there will Be though two major road works to start next month, salwa road part ii & luwsail road.
last time it was "opened" after construction, they immediately announced a further construction project on it and closed it again. In my 6+ years in Doha it has only been open for 1 year.
Don't get too excited, it'll be closed for road works before you can say antidisestablishmentarianism
gr8 news
WE rode through it yesterday ... it was cool ... hope atleast now my kids will reach home lil earlier from their school ...
The WHOLE road is 100kph.
I think the 100 Kmph limit is just for a portion where D & E Ring Road meet.
The max speed is 100 kph.. gulf times, wrong as usual..
about bloody time...
Yet another Painful act by Ashgaal they block roads without informing then give make shift roundabouts and suddenly they close everything and then they open road with out any news or without any information just go direct to shamal.... till lastnight u could take U trun n reach abuhamour now goto shamal and come back lolz and May God Bless us all keep us all away from that Catch 22 oops i mean 2022 World Cup ;).
good news...............................
s yesterday v were also so excited to use tht road...........OMG i must say good work.........usually it takes 15-20 mins to reach hilal but with this road it took only 8 mins. from souq al ali till tadmon round about therez no signal n it saves time.......
Drive Safe everyone :)
KHATTAK lol i really wish too :)
This is great news!!!
120km/hour! That's great, let's see what these people in white suit can do on this road.
exiled.....Bajju is working as Director in Ashghal...thats why ;)
Good News...
I don't think you can say hats off to ashgal. Years late, over budget, legal wranglings with the contractor..
I used the road last night, 10 minutes from Landmark to Maamoura.Not all the exits are open yet though.
hats off to Ashghal ( Public works authority )
Good news
Finallllllly? YippeeeeEE.....
so excited to drive on it. This will greatly reduce my travel time to my kids school. Great News!!!!!
Congrats to the new contractors. It will be so easy to get around town now. This should make a huge difference in travel times around town as traffic will now be able to flow easier! I can't wait till my next trip to the airport, should take me 20 minutes instead of 45!