Motorists may want to avoid Al Rayyan Road near Sports Roundabout in the coming weeks as Ashghal closes a 1.4km stretch for six months.

Starting tomorrow (Jan. 5), the eastbound lane heading toward Sports Roundabout will be closed. Additionally, the two lanes going in the other direction will be reduced to one lane to accommodate eastbound traffic.

Commuters can either use this lane or a new diversion toward Al Rayyan Roundabout, as shown on the map.

The speed limit will be reduced to 50 km/hour during this time.

Al Rayyan road construction

Qatar’s public works authority said the closure will allow for construction of a new flyover as part of its Al Rayyan Road Upgrade project.

Once completed, the flyover will connect the 22 February St. with Al Rayyan Road (heading west).

Work on a massive QR4.5 billion upgrade of 8km of Al Rayyan Road began in 2014.

Phase 1 entails reworking the areas around Education City, while this latest diversion falls under Phase 2 of the project.

This involves 5.3km of road from the west of Sports R/A to the west of Khalid Bin Abdullah Al-Attiyah roundabout (New Rayyan roundabout).

As with phase one, this area will also be transformed into an eight-lane expressway, with four lanes in each directions separated by a central median.

Six main junctions will also be constructed — the Al Massila interchange, the Al Rayyan interchange, the Bin Zaben interchange, the Khalid bin Abdullah al-Attiyah interchange at Al Rayyan Road, the Old Rayyan interchange at Huwar Street (Furosiya) and the Lebdii interchange at Bu Erayyen road.

Work on this phase was expected to end in the third quarter of this year, but may be pushed back, as the first phase still hasn’t wrapped up.

Thoughts?