Dubai Municipality has closed three Dubai-bound lanes of Sheikh Zayed Road till noon today because of the removal of the bridge at Interchange No. 2.

Announcing the closure, Engineer Khalid Saqr Al Marri, Head of the Roads Construction Section at the Roads Department said the removal job may take two weeks to complete "in view of the maximum safety criterion set by the municipality for such works and because the work is taking place at one of the busiest roads."

He said the timing of closure of the Abu Dhabi-bound lanes would be announced next week.

"The existing bridges at Interchange 2 must be removed to allow traffic capacity improvements to be made, and to make room for the required widening of Sheikh Zayed Road, including construction of two parallel collector-distributor ramps.

"The ramps will connect two new loop ramps to Sheikh Zayed Road and Road D69, and when completed, will provide free flow of traffic in all directions," said Al Marri.

He said the third phase of diversions on Sheikh Zayed Road will begin by this month-end and continue till the end of the project in December.

During this phase, the new interchange will be ready for operation and most of the traffic will be diverted through the new bridges and roads.

Al Marri also said that expansion works on the Safa Interchange are progressing on schedule. Existing bridges are being removed and an integrated network of bridges will be set up to ensure free flow of traffic.

This project comes within the framework of Dubai's strategic planning and urban development plans in view of the emirate's all-round development.

Al Marri said traffic between Al Safa and Al Qouz areas would be normal thanks to the two new bridges. Also, all the link and approach roads of the interchange would be open to traffic to ensure free flow of traffic.

All other interchanges of Sheikh Zayed Road such as the Defence Interchange and Al Manara Interchange would be upgraded in a similar fashion to improve the road's capacity to accommodate future increase in traffic.