UAE | Traffic and Transport
New Garhoud bridge to be opened by mid-December with eight lanes
The new Al Garhoud bridge will be opened partially in December to ease traffic congestion, said a senior official.
- By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:12 October 2, 2007
- All 13 lanes of the new Al Garhoud Bridge will be operational by March 2008.
- Image Credit: Asghar Khan/Gulf News
Dubai: The new Al Garhoud bridge will be opened partially in December to ease traffic congestion, said a senior official.
"We will open at least four lanes on each side of the bridge by mid-December, while the bridge will be fully operational in March 2008 as per schedule," confirmed Engineer Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority.
He added that the existing Garhoud bridge will be demolished after the new bridge is fully operational.
Ahead of schedule
"Of course, the bridge will be toll controlled and the existing Salik gate will continue to work as it is," he clarified while answering a question.
He said the RTA has sped up work on a number of its projects to finish them ahead of time to minimise traffic congestion in the city.
The new Al Garhoud Bridge will have a capacity for 16,000 vehicles per hour. It will have seven lanes from Bur Dubai to Deira and six lanes (expandable to seven in future) from Deira to Bur Dubai.
The existing Al Garhoud Bridge has a capacity of only 8,000 cars per hour.
The cost of the project, which started in February 2006, is Dh415 million. Its total length is 520 metres. It is 15 metres above the water level, ensuring free navigation for boats in the Dubai Creek.
The existing bridge must be closed for traffic to make way for bigger boats passing through the Dubai Creek.
The existing Al Garhoud Bridge is congested because it has only three lanes in each direction.
From Deira, at least seven lanes lead to the bridge including four Al Ittihad Road lanes, two from Al Rabat Road, and one lane from Al Bustan Road. All of them converge forming three lanes at Al Garhoud Bridge resulting in traffic congestion.
Similarly, at least five lanes from Shaikh Zayed Road decrease to three lanes while approaching the bridge.
The new bridge has been designed in a way that it will ensure a balance between the number of lanes on the bridge and number of lanes leading to it from both sides to avoid any congestion.
Share this article
More from UAE Traffic and Transport
More from UAE
Popular in UAE
-
Gallery
Your Pictures
XPRESS brings you a selection of the best reader pictures
-
Money
Managing with less
How to manage with less than Dh3,000 to spend every month
-
Your Say
Fun encounters
What was the craziest way in which you made a friend?
Latest news
- Dubai Municipality declares car-free day
- UAE issues booklet on workers' rights
- Dubai's Arabic-speaking robot takes a flight to Riyadh
- RAK bans shisha smoking on Corniches
- School pupils raise funds for Haiti
- No individual meals at public kitchens
- Trio to be charged with breach of trust
- Man smoked hashish in police station parking lot
- Mohammad visits Dubai laboratory
- Sayegh, Al Sarsi sworn in as judges
- UAE youth join trip to spread peace
- Man denies stripping, threatening to kill woman
- Al Dhafrah Festival is another huge hit
- Sharia Court to issue ID cards as proof of marriage
- Burj Khalifa observation deck incident 'minor'
Community Reports
-
School pupils raise funds for Haiti
To end the fundraising week, an event was hosted on January 28 at the school's campus in Dubai Festival City
-
Huge holes in conservation effort
One feels silly switching off lights in a room when leaving it as rampant wastage of energy takes place in shops across Dubai
-
Messages on wall reflect state of mind
Home is a child's first school and a mother is the first teacher
-
Cats move in on Abu Dhabi beach
A dedicated shelter would provide the felines gathering around the lighthouse and Corniche a place to call home
