Sharjah: Completion of phase three of the Mohammad Bin Zayed Road expansion project in Sharjah, which is scheduled for early April, is expected to significantly reduce traffic jams and ensure the smooth flow of traffic on the busy highway.
Motorists are eager for the completion of the expansion work, following the opening of the expanded National Paints bridge last month, which considerably improved area traffic.
Work on the Dh350 million third phase of the expansion project is nearly completed, with only the bridge at the First Industrial interchange still under construction.
With the completion of the final phase, traffic flow is expected to further improve between Dubai and Sharjah.
The project — costing about Dh1 billion — is being undertaken by the Ministry of Public Works, using funds allocated by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan for infrastructure development of the northern emirates
Phase three of the expansion project involves construction of new bridges, the widening of Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road from three lanes to five lanes in each direction, and the construction of a new drainage network to effectively dispose of rainwater and avoid winter flooding.
The expansion of the congested highway, which links Dubai with Sharjah and other northern emirates, began two years ago.
“We are expecting a 100 per cent improvement in traffic movement once the expansion work is completed. The National Paints intersection had been the main reason [behind the slowing of traffic], but with the new bridges built we have added two lanes in each direction, and this will definitely ease traffic movement,” Dr Abdullah Bel Haif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Public Works and Chairman of the National Transport Authority, said earlier.
He added that the capacity of the highway is being doubled and all bottlenecks have been removed. The project is part of the expansion being carried out on Mohammad Bin Zayed Road in Sharjah.
Regular motorists on Mohammad Bin Zayed Road told Gulf News that the National Paints expansion will help save time and ensure smooth traffic on one of the most congested highways running from Dubai to Sharjah and other northern emirates.
“The completion of the project itself will lead to smoother traffic flow, which was immediately visible after the opening of the first and second phase of the expansion project on National Paints. The widening of the road improved the accessibility of this route,” said Moataz Hassan, a Jordanian resident of Sharjah who travels to Dubai every day.
“Commuting from Dubai to Sharjah on a daily basis has been a nightmare for me, and I will definitely be happy to see the new bridges and lanes open for traffic so that I can come back to my children much earlier than before,” Nahla Al Khateeb, an Egyptian secretary, said,
— Nawal Al Ramahi is a trainee at Gulf News
