The Springs: Road to despair

Angry residents living in a Dubai gated community say their lives have been made a misery because of disruption caused by year long road works.

For the last 12 months construction and road maintenance crews have dug up and blocked off pavements along Spring Drive parallel road at the luxury Springs community.

Some people have become so fed up with work being done by the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) that they have decided to move.

They say their quality of life has been ruined due to the constant noise and dust kicked up by the work and they are worried about the safety of pedestrians.

Chamindra Kumara, 30, originally from Sri Lanka has been a house driver for a family in The Springs for the last four years.

“When I first came here it used to be very quiet, it was a nice area for residents,'' Kumara said.

“People seemed to be a lot more happy in the past but over the last year the road works have just brought noise and dust.

“The highway used to be lined with trees but they removed them and it's just concrete now.''

He added that people don't have proper crossings and are “becoming very annoyed''.

“I know a few who have moved out to Arabian Ranches because they have become so fed up with it,'' he said.

Meltem Okvuran, a Turkish expat who lives in The Springs with her husband and two children, has been in the area for 18 months.

“The work seems to have been going on forever. We actually moved to the area because we thought it was a quiet place where they children could enjoy playing out,'' she said.