Doha roads jammed with traffic following flooding, Salwa Road closure

  • Shabina S. Khatri and Omar Chatriwala
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    After some 24 hours of drizzling and intermittent rains, Doha’s roads were clogged with cars this evening.

    Flooding in the Salwa Road tunnels earlier in the day led to at least one car getting stuck and the Qatar Decor underpass being closed temporarily, shunting rush-hour commuters onto the smaller service roads.

    UPDATE | March 27, 2014

    As of Thursday morning, Salwa Road is looking pretty clear, commuters report:

    The Public Works Authority, Ashghal, has deployed emergency teams to drain Salwa Road flooding and said in a statement that it expects the work to be completed within a few hours.

    Drainage work in the Salwa Road underpass

    The partial closure had an apparent knock-on effect as drivers sought to avoid the area, leading to backups on surrounding roads, including B-Ring, C-Ring, and congestion at Al Waab. Traffic levels were also higher than usual in the West Bay area and elsewhere in Doha.

    Amid criticism from Qatar residents for the flooding of the new Salwa highway, Ashghal sought to defended itself, saying the issue stems from as-yet uncompleted Abu Hamour infrastructure work.

    In the statement issued this evening, it said:

    “Ashghal asserts the fact that Salwa Road encompasses an efficient and deep water drainage system including pipes with large diameters, providing high drainage capacity for surface water to serve Salwa Road. However, as the project’s underground drainage connection to the sea through Abu Hamour network is still not yet constructed, Salwa Road drainage network is currently used to receive and store surface water inside the pipes only as a temporary procedure till the main drainage network is ready to streamline the water to the sea as planned.

    When these pipes reached its maximum capacity within a very short time due to heavy rains as was the case today, water suction pumps and tanks are immediately deployed to the area to handle the eccess water from the Salwa Road drainage pipes to the nearest drainage network in order to reduce the level of water levels inside these pipes.”

    Other parts of Qatar have also seen flooding, most notably the Industrial Area:

    Police began redirecting traffic in the Salwa Road area early in the afternoon:

    The Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning has tweeted that trucks have been deployed on the roads to suction the rainwater:

    Nonetheless, commuters are warning each other to stay off the streets if possible:

    https://twitter.com/fzirie/status/448758097540947969

    Meanwhile, forecasters have said the rain will likely clear up by tonight. Rain during this time of the year is typical, as the country transitions from the cooler months into the hotter ones.

    Thoughts?