The busy stretch of Najma St. that links C-Ring Road with D-Ring Road will be closed for six weeks starting on Tuesday, June 9, as public works authority Ashghal comes close to finishing plans to widen roads and improve traffic flow in the area.

For Qatar motorists, the closure will likely cause some pain as traffic is diverted onto already busy adjacent streets.

But on the bright side, the reopening of Najma St. in mid-July will signify the completion of the last phase of a 14-month long project to overhaul a 6.3km stretch of C-Ring Road.

The diversion

Starting Tuesday, the road from Al Nuaija intersection at The Mall to Al Mansoura intersection near Gulf Cinema will be shut in both directions for 45 days.

During this time, the public works authority will convert the roundabout at the Woqod petrol station into an intersection with traffic lights and add an additional lane to help cut congestion in the Al Hilal district.

The works is part of the final phase of a four-stage program to improve one of Doha’s busiest commuter roads.

The Najma St. construction is expected to be completed around Eid Al-Fitr. This puts Ashghal slightly behind schedule, as it had planned to finish C-Ring works by the end of May.

C-Ring project

Work on C-Ring first began last May, when Ashghal revamped the route between Umm Ghuwailina (VIP) Roundabout and the Jabur bin Ahmed/Radisson Blu (Ramada) Junction to increase traffic capacity by 25 percent.

The construction included:

• Widening the road from three to four lanes;
• Establishing pedestrian crossings at all four intersections under construction;
• Installing three U-turn lanes with pedestrian crossings in the 6.3km stretch (not specified where);
• Construction of permanent roads with new traffic signals and street lighting; and
• Upgrading irrigation pipes in the area.

The first stretch of road affected ran from what was VIP Roundabout, to halfway between Toyota and Gulf Cinema signals.

The area marked as Phase 4 on the map, from Ramada junction to New Salata intersection, was the second part of road to be overhauled when work started there in mid-August last year.

The New Year heralded the commencement of Phase 3 works around Rawdat Al Khail (Holiday Villas) intersection, which finished on schedule in mid-March before construction on the final stretch of road (Phase 2) got underway.

Qatar’s ongoing population boom has put significant pressure on its infrastructure, particularly its roads network, as thousands of new vehicles take to the streets each month.

However, residents have said that the added capacity to this busy route has helped tackle some of the congestion.

Thoughts?