Dubai: A major new traffic diversion will open on Friday as part of the ongoing Airport Road Improvement Project of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai.
Deira-bound traffic on the Airport Road, when coming from Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road and Al Khawaneej Road, will be diverted to a new flyover.
Meanwhile Rashidiya-bound motorists will use the leftward lanes to take them to the existing signalised junction.
The diversion works are part of the first contract of the project aimed to improve the traffic flow on intersections in the area.
Maitha Bin Adai, CEO of RTA’s Traffic and Roads Agency, said: “The Airport Road Improvement Project will increase the capacity of the Airport Road by an additional 5,000 vehicles per hour. It will also enhance the traffic safety level, and reduce the transit time on the Airport Road from Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road up to Casablanca Road from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. The first contract for the [project] covers the construction of Rashidiya and Casablanca Interchanges, and the project is expected to be fully opened by the end of this year.”
She added that the project “covers improving Rashidiya Interchange through the construction of a flyover on the Airport Road comprising of three lanes in each direction and upgrading the surface intersections. These works are expected to slash the waiting time at the intersection from 13 minutes to less than a minute.”
Also included in the project, she said, is upgrading the Airport–Casablanca Road Intersection, constructing an additional single-lane ramp to serve the traffic from the Airport Road in the direction of Casablanca Road, thus eliminating the waiting time at the light signal.
It also includes the construction of an alternative road for traffic inbound from Al Garhoud enabling direct access to Terminal 1 and 3 of the Dubai International Airport, besides increasing the number of lanes of Casablanca Road in the direction of Al Garhoud from three to four lanes.
“These improvements will reduce the total waiting time at Casablanca Intersection from three minutes to one minute, and ease the existing tailbacks generated by the overlapping traffic of vehicles heading towards Casablanca Intersection and those coming from Terminal 1 heading leftwards to Casablanca Road.”
In the next phase, the RTA will close the traffic from Airport Terminal 1 to Deira, to complete the remaining works on the new flyover on Casablanca Interchange (Cargo Village), but will provide an alternative corridor through Road 51 and passing along Casablanca Road, she added.
