Abu Dhabi: The new Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway will be built at a cost of Dh2.1 billion, Musanada (Abu Dhabi General Services) announced in the capital on Saturday.

The announcement came following the Abu Dhabi Executive Council’s approval of awarding the road project works in its recently held meeting to maintain balanced development all over Abu Dhabi.

The length of the new road adds up to around 62 kilometres and it is an extension to Mohammad Bin Zayed Road; from Saih Shuaib area, Al Maha Forest and Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad), to join up with the Sweihan Road (E20).

The project will be accomplished within a span of 30 months from the works commencement date and is expected to be finished by 2017.

“The new Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway project is considered as one of the biggest and most important projects in the capital, which aims at developing roads infrastructure in Abu Dhabi. The project has been developed to upgrade the infrastructure of Abu Dhabi transportation network,” Mohammad Khalifa Al Fahd Al Mehairi, CEO at Musanada, said.

The project aims to ease traffic congestion on the E11, as studies show that traffic will go up from 700 vehicles per hours at peak time to more than 12,000 vehicles in 2030 as a result of population growth, and provide a new strategic link between the country’s two most populated emirates, while creating new entrances to the city of Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi International Airport, Yas and Saadiyat Islands.

The new Abu Dhabi-Dubai main road will connect the Khalifa Port area and Kizad to existing and future main roads to reach the industrial areas in Musaffah and serve new residential areas.

Eng Ali Al Haj Al Mehairbi, executive director of buildings and project management services at Musanada, said: “The new road will consist of four lanes in each direction with the possibility of expanding it in the future up to six lanes in each direction, knowing that six key junctions will be built on the road to serve new residential areas, like Al Falah, and also to serve new industrial and economic areas such as, Khalifa Port and Khalifa Industrial Zone.”

“The new project involves implementation of a number of bridges to protect services lines, especially gas lines which intersect with the track of the new road,” he added.

Musanada has signed a contract to implement the new project, in its first and second phases, with each of Ghantoot Transport and General Contracting Establishment, Tristar Engineering and Constructions, and Abu Dhabi Salini Costruttori.