Muscat Municipality plans two interchanges

Muscat Municipality has planned two new interchanges to ease traffic flow near Al Khodh and Ma'beelah roundabouts, according to Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Saadi, the Director of Roads.

"We hope to start work next year once we complete the two dual carriageways in that area," Al Saadi informed Gulf News yesterday.

The seven kilometre dual carriageway is being constructed from the Al Khodh roundabout (popularly known as the book roundabout) to the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), and a similar seven kilometre dual carriageway will come up from Ma'beelah roundabout to the SQU.

"Both the dual carriageways are almost ready and finishing touches are being given to them at the moment," he revealed.

Al Saadi added as soon as the carriageway is completed in that area, work on the interchange will begin.

"There's a marked increase in traffic volume in this area," remarked the Muscat municipality official. He attributed it to growing number of commercial complexes, the SQU and also the biggest residential district in the capital, Wilayat of Seeb, which is close to this highway. The highway also connects Muscat with Sohar and the UAE.

Al Saadi said the project is still in the planning stages thus the estimated cost cannot be revealed.

The dual carriageway and interchanges in Seeb Wilayat are one of the biggest road projects undertaken by the municipality since 1995, when the dual carriageway from Muscat to Bid Bid was completed.

Like near Al Khodh roundabout, the Al Khuwair locality in Wilayat of Baushar is also getting congested, especially the Al Khuwair roundabout, which is a link between the ministry area in North of Al Khuwair and the residential locality on the other side of the Sultan Qaboos Street.

"We have a major problem at hand to cope with the rush in this area. We have undertaken this RO7.1 million project to alleviate traffic congestion in this area."

Al Saadi said they considered various options before deciding on constructing bridges. A cross bridge is being constructed from Al Khuwair North to the other side, over the existing flyover on the Al Khuwair roundabout.

"This will help traffic from the ministry enclave to travel on the other side uninterrupted." A system bridge is being constructed on the Al Khuwair roundabout for a free flow of traffic from Ruwi to Al Khuwair residential area.

Further down the main Sultan Qaboos Street, an overhead bridge is being built to connect North of Ghubra area with Al Khuwair residential area. "This bridge will also provide easy access to traffic coming from the 20-km-long dual carriageway from Ma'beelah."

With the easy flow into the Al Khuwair residential area from three directions the municipality has also undertaken work to upgrade antenna roads in the area. "We are trying to eliminate every possibility of a bottleneck," Al Saadi said confidently.

While the work is on to ease traffic, the municipality has also removed fences between major roads and replaced them with New Jersey barriers. "The whole purpose of placing New Jersey barriers is safety."

With the steel and concrete barrier dividing the roads, Al Saadi, claimed chances of vehicles running over on the other side of the road are negligible.

"We are also constructing five foot-overhead bridges between Al Sarooj Complex and Al Hail on the Sultan Qaboos Street," he said. The municipality hopes to reduce the rate of joy walkers, run over by vehicles plying at a speed of 100km/h or more on this road.

"We have to give pedestrians enough options to cross over. We are also broadening the road between Wattayeh and Wadi Adai roundabout," he said.

The present four-lane road will be broadened to three-lanes on each side. "We have to cut mountains to create space for this."

The RO8.7 million Wadi Adai road project, Al Saadi, claimed will reduce the travelling distance to the Wilayat of Quriyat by half, "especially during peak hours. The major problem on this road is a wadi," he pointed out, adding that during heavy traffic flow times wadi cuts off road link to Quriyat.

"The new nine kilometre road from Wadi Adai to Amaarat is an all weather road. Basically, the road alignment has been changed and the new road is close to the mountain to avoid water from entering into the wadi."

Revealing future plans, Al Saadi, said a straight road from Al Hamriya to Wadi Kabir is on the cards.

"We will have to cut a lot of mountains to get access through to the Walja area. We constantly survey traffic and expand roads if the volume of traffic increases substantially."