Dubai: Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has carried out a series of improvements at seven locations across Sheikh Zayed Road (SZR) to ease traffic congestions and increase vehicular flow on the road.
The first improvement was the widening of Exit 39 (near Mall of the Emirates) from one lane to two lanes, which has doubled the intake of the road from 1,800 vehicles to 3,600 vehicles per hour. As such, it has shortened the journey time from SZR to Umm Suqeim from 12 minutes to 1.45 minutes and reduced the length of the queue from 1km to 50m only.
The second involved improving Umm Amara Street in the direction of Safa Park Interchange to ease the bottleneck at the roundabout and increase the flow of traffic in the direction of Abu Dhabi.
The third entailed changes in the free right lane branching out from the 2nd of December Street to SZR in the direction of Abu Dhabi. Works included increasing the storage lane capacity, which increased the traffic flow on the Trade Centre roundabout and reduced the length of the queue.
The fourth was on Al Thowima Street at Al Barsha (near Novotel Hotel) to ease the congestion on the service road and improve the accessibility to internal areas of SZR.
The fifth improvement was on SZR nearby Shangri-La Hotel and the first interchange in the direction of Abu Dhabi. A new lane was added, which increased the capacity to 1,800 vehicles per hour. A third lane was added at the exit in the direction of Dubai Mall, which increased the capacity to 5,400 vehicles per hour. These changes eased the traffic movement on the SZR near the first interchange.
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The sixth improvement was also near the first interchange of the SZR in the direction of Sharjah nearby Dusit Hotel. A new lane was added with a capacity of 1,800 vehicles per hour, which reduced the waiting time at the entry of the service road. More improvements were made to the entry and exit points to improve the flow of traffic.
The seventh and final improvement was near the fourth interchange in the direction of Sharjah (Al Manara Exit) where improvements were made to the entry/exit points of the interchange to ease the traffic flow on the SZR and cut the snarls. It will increase the capacity from 10,800 vehicles per hour to 12,600 vehicles per hour. Works also included the addition of one lane near the exit to the service road, after Noor Bank Metro Station in the direction of the exit to Umm Al Sheif.
“These improvements are part of RTA’s new vision aimed at being ‘The world leader in seamless and sustainable mobility’ through considerably cutting tailbacks along this important traffic corridor and its extensions. Such improvements involved a substantial increase in the capacity of the Road and contributed to the smooth flow of traffic,” said Maitha Bin Adai, CEO, Traffic and Roads Agency, RTA.