Motorists in Al Waab should prepare for delays and congestion when a new set of road diversions begins this weekend, Qatar Rail has announced.

Starting Friday, March 26, a stretch of Al Waab St. heading westbound will be shut between the junctions of Al Bustan St. and Wholesale Market St for more than a year.

Traffic will be diverted to the eastbound lanes, which will be converted to become two-way for the duration of this latest phase of works.

The diversion will be in place until May 3, 2017.

The partial closure is to enable ongoing works of the Doha Metro Gold Line, which will run along Al Waab St., the rail company said in a statement.

This set of diversions is the second stage of works to the busy east-west route to make way for construction of the rail line.

“We apologize for any inconvenience you may experience due to the road closure and to make sure traffic in Doha is undisrupted, the above alternative routes will be provided,” Qatar Rail said.

Gold Line works

Diversions are already in place further east on the street, between the junction of Al Bustan St. and the junction of Al Henwa St., just before the main interchange with the expressway.

This set of works, which was scheduled to last five weeks, is set to wrap up by April 1, Qatar Rail previously said.

Once complete, the first phase of the Gold Line will have 11 stations and run 14km west-east from Al Azizyya, under Al Waab St., along Al Saad St. and through Bin Mahmoud to connect with the Msheireb hub. It will then extend through Souq Waqif and the under-construction National Museum out to Ras Bu Aboud.

It will be one of three lines and 37 stations that will open to passengers in late 2019. By 2021, the Gold Line is expected to take 180,000 passenger trips each day, Qatar Rail said.

In the first phase of the Metro opening, the Red Line will run 40km from Lusail through Msheireb to Al Wakrah, with a spur going to Hamad International Airport.

Meanwhile the Green Line will start at Al Rayyan Stadium and run 22km past Education City and the new National Library, by Hamad Hospital and through the Msheireb hub to Al Mansoura.

Thoughts?