As part of a multi-million riyal overhaul of two key routes in Doha’s Old Airport district, Ashghal has announced the partial opening of the new Al Thumama intersection.

The junction of E-Ring Road and Najma Street, near the under-construction Kahramaa awareness park, had been under construction for four months while being converted into an intersection.

It is one phase in a wider QR240 million project in the busy Najma/Old Airport area that involves widening roads, upgrading drainage networks, as well as creating pedestrian and cyclist paths, street lighting and landscaping.

In the first phase of the new intersection, which launched on Sunday, two lanes are open to traffic in each direction on Najma Street and on E-Ring Road.

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When the signal-controlled junction is fully open by spring this year, it will have four lanes and three dedicated turn lanes in each direction on E-Ring Road, and three lanes and three dedicated turning lanes each way on Najma Street, the public works authority said in a statement.

The wider project in the area is expected to take until the end of this year and will upgrade 3km of Najma Street and 3.3km of E- Ring Road to increase capacity on the busy routes and help tackle chronic traffic congestion particularly during peak hours.

Another intersection of Oqba bin Nafie and Najma Street, about half-a-kilometer north of E-Ring Road, is also under reconstruction Ashghal added.

When Ashghal announced plans for the overhaul of the area in late 2014, it said other works would include:

• Constructing a signalized intersection where Najma and Al Hadara streets meet, roughly half a kilometer south of E-Ring Road. Short stretches of Najma and Al Hadara will be widened and realigned to accommodate the new intersection;
• Upgrading the existing signalized intersection at Al Matar Street (Airport Road) and E-Ring Road, next to the old Doha International Airport property, to allow vehicles to make U-turns; and
• Constructing a pedestrian bridge over E-Ring Road, although this item is marked as “provisional.” No location was specified in the tender documents and to date, no further information has been released about this.

Has the new junction improved traffic flow for you? Thoughts?