As part of an ongoing national road improvement plan, three separate sets of traffic diversions will be put in place this weekend, Ashghal has announced.
The first involves part of Markhiya Street. The area between Onaiza intersection (behind Qatar Sports Club) to Lejbailat intersection that connects with Jamiaa Street will be closed to traffic for two days, from Friday morning (May 29) until midnight on Saturday.
The closure only affects south-bound traffic, heading toward Qatar Sports Club and the Dafna district.
Drivers will be diverted onto Al Taqadom Street (after Lejbilat interchange), then onto Al Muhandiseen Street which leads to Independence Street. From there, they will be taken to Civil Defense roundabout after which they can make a U-turn to return to Onaiza intersection.
The road closure is to enable maintenance works, including repaving and asphalting, Ashghal said in a statement.
Traffic heading away from Dafna towards Lejbailat junction will not be affected.
Al Khor diversions
Meanwhile, work that is underway to reconfigure some of the road network in Al Khor to improve traffic congestion will mean changes to the roads leading to the Coffee Pot roundabout.
Starting this Saturday (May 30), work on the roundabout will commence to be converted into a signal-controlled intersection. During this time, the central island and road shoulders leading to the roundabout in all four directions will be closed.
Diversions will be in place for three months on the roads that lead from the roundabout to Al Thakira and also toward Doha, with the same number of lanes provided on alternative routes to enable traffic flow, Ashghal said.
Also, two lanes of Commercial Street, from the Coffee Pot Roundabout toward Nasser Bin Abdallah Al Misnad Street, will be closed for 12 months with traffic diverted to a two-lane adjacent street during the construction.
Meanwhile, there will be temporary diversions in place at the western entrance to Al Khor Sports Club also starting this Saturday, as access and egress to Omar Bin Abdulaziz Street will be closed.
Traffic will be diverted to the east entrance leading to Al Tawoon Street, and the closure will be in place for two months.
Ashghal is implementing these temporary diversion to complete phase two of the developments of roads and infrastructure of Al Khor Commercial Street.
The public works authority said this is part of a plan to redevelop the roads and infrastructure in the town to improve traffic flow and ease congestion.
New junctions with traffic lights, service roads and parking bays will be created, while access routes to residential and commercial zones will also be added.
Al Khor is currently undergoing a facelift, with one of Qatar’s biggest and oldest parks set to reopen this summer after years of reconstruction.
To encourage more visitors to the town, the area’s coastline is also being redeveloped, with the creation of additional parking lots and amenities such as bathrooms and cafeterias.
Pressure on roads
Qatar’s growing population and the thousands of new vehicles taking to the streets each month is placing significant pressure on the state’s infrastructure.
To ease congestion, Ashghal has been working to overhaul the existing roads network, including adding additional lanes and replacing roundabouts.
In addition to tackling local roads, its Expressway program also aims to create new highways across the state.
In its annual report published at the end of last year, Ashghal said it planned to start more than a dozen major roads projects this year.
This includes a major overhaul of several busy routes, including:
- Al Bustan Street, which runs north-south from Al Waab to Gharaffa (complete first half 2019);
- Al Jamiaa Street, from Qatar University, heading south (first half 2018);
- Al Markhiya Street, which runs from Al Gharafa, past Landmark Mall and into West Bay (second half 2018);
- Al Furousiya Street, which runs on the Western side of Aspire Park to connect with Al Rayyan Road (second half 2019); and
- Al Gharafa and Al Khafji Streets (first half 2019).
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