One of Qatar’s last and most congested roundabouts will be demolished this year and replaced with a signal-controlled intersection, a senior Ashghal official has said.

Work on Sports Roundabout in Al Sadd will begin within months, said Salem Al-Shawi, assistant director of Road Projects at Ashghal.

Speaking to Al Sharq this week, he said construction will start with the dismantling of the iconic sports-themed sculpture in the middle of the junction.

“The Sports intersection and TV intersection will be completed before the end of this year,” Al-Shawi added.

Al Rayyan Road overhaul

Sports R/A isn’t the only thing getting overhauled in that area. Ashghal is also working on a massive QR4.5 billion upgrade of 8km of Al Rayyan Road.

The second phase of the project is now underway and encompasses 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. Four lanes in each direction will be separated by a central median. Six main junctions are also being constructed.

Work on this phase was expected to end in the third quarter of 2017. But this has now been pushed back to 2018.

TV Roundabout

Meanwhile, Ashghal began work on TV Roundabout last month. However, most closures and detours are not expected to take effect until this summer.

That junction should be up and running by the start of the new school year in September, officials previously said.

Over the past few years, Ashghal has already converted the roundabouts nearby, including Oryx, Burger King, Lejbailat and Dahl Al Hammam, into signalized intersections.

This year, it is also advancing on plans to dismantle Slope Roundabout near Education City, to make way for a new two-level intersection.

Are you going to miss Sports R/A? Thoughts?