Abu Dhabi connects the dots with its infrastructure spending

However, the various infrastructure projects across the country seem to be going full steam ahead. Dubai’s Metro Red-Line is due for completion in September. As a result, the project is witnessing increased activity and renewed attention. In Abu Dhabi, substantial progress is being made with regards to infrastructural developments, especially those related to transportation.

Key plans

The main objectives of Abu Dhabi’s ‘Surface Transportation Master Plan’ and the ‘Urban Framework Plan 2030’ are to introduce alternative forms of public transportation and ensure free flowing traffic to maximise connectivity.

Plans include consideration of a grid of boulevards instead of large freeways to dissipate traffic flow, make roads out of dead ends, construct a number of new freeways, parkways and truck routes, introduce a tram and metro network, as well as a rail network with a freight line, increase the bus network and enrich pedestrian movement.

Substantial progress has been made on most of these aspects, and these have been dealt with in detail in Investment Boutique’s ‘Abu Dhabi Market Pulse Q3’ to be brought out this month. Here, we talk about a few of the major road projects currently under construction in the capital.

Reduced travel time

Preparatory works on the Dh5 billion Salam Street project started a few months before the official announcement in November 2008.

The street has been one of the busiest in the capital, with a capacity of 3,000 vehicles per hour. Its conversion into a 20-kilometre, eight-lane urban expressway by the end of 2010 is expected to reduce the travel time from Shaikh Zayed Bridge to Mina Zayed to a mere 10 minutes, with a double vehicle capacity and reduce accident rates to well below 4 per cent.

The project includes a number of tunnels and intersections, with the main tunnel starting at Mina Road and continuing to Al Falah Street intersection. Traffic will be brought below the surface level, while local traffic will move through surface level interchanges.

Four contracts make up the project and 37 per cent of the first three have been completed, with the fourth likely to be awarded over the next few months. The Dh3.1 billion Contract 1, which includes the main tunnel, is 27 per cent complete with the detours and excavation work in progress.

The Dh817 million Contract 2 involving the construction of two tunnels near Khalifa Park is over 40 per cent complete and will be operational in August 2010. The Dh800 million Contract 3 includes a tunnel near the Sea Palace junction, a tunnel at the intersection of Defence Street and Salam Street and a bridge connecting Defence Street to Al Reem Island.

This package is 40 per cent complete and becomes operational around April 2010.
Construction of the Dh5.4 billion 10-lane, 27-kilometre Shahama-Saadiyat highway commenced in March 2007 and has been supervised by Aldar Properties and TDIC along with the Department of Transport.

TDIC accounts for Dh3.6 billion of the total costs, while Aldar bears the remaining Dh1.83 billion.

Vital link

Halcrow International has designed the highway while Six Construct Co. and Taisei Corp. are leading the construction work. The project on completion will link Abu Dhabi Island, Shahama, Yas Island and Saadiyat Island. Phase 1 of the project consisted of a seven-kilometre interchange linking Shahama to Yas Island.

Phase 2 involves three suspended bridges connecting Yas Island to Saadiyat Island. Another suspended bridge will link Saadiyat Island to Abu Dhabi Island near Mina Zayed.

The bridge connecting Shahama to Yas Island has been completed. There is some work left along the 1.3-kilometre Saadiyat-Mina Zayed bridge being constructed by TDIC. Most of the remaining portions of the work packages are now nearing completion and the project is expected to be ready by September 2009.

According to Bunya, the municipal authority that oversees the infrastructure and utilities on Al Reem Island, road infrastructure to connect the Island to Abu Dhabi City are on schedule with the majority of Phase 1 works forecasted to be completed in March 2010. Approximately Dh2.6 billion has been kept aside for the construction of roads, bridges and utilities. The island is currently connected to the Abu Dhabi coast by land bridges from Salam Street.

Four additional bridges are under construction to connect it with Falah Street and the Abu Dhabi Mall throughSuwwah Island.

Three of them have been completed with one bridge expected to be inaugurated later this year. Eventually, by around 2016, the island will be linked to the mainland and nearby islands through 13 bridges.

While quite a few of these projects are at the planning stage, they show Abu Dhabi in a positive light and are resulting in a flow of liquidity to the new project-starved construction sector.

The writer is senior manager, research, for Investment Boutique, a UAE-based real estate consultancy firm that provides advisory research and portfolio management expertise