Part of the north-bound carriageway of the Corniche heading toward West Bay will be closed to traffic tomorrow morning (Oct. 9), Qatar’s public works authority Ashghal has said.
The stretch of road from the Emiri Diwan to the National Theater will be shut from 2am until 11am on Friday as work continues to create a new interchange on the Corniche.
During the closure, traffic heading toward Dafna/West Bay from the Souq area will instead need to turn left before the Diwan onto Al Asmakh Street, then right onto Al Rayyan Road and down on to Majlis Al Taawon Street via Al Bidda roundabout, Ashghal said in a statement.
Cutting congestion
Ashghal began reconfiguring the key stretch of one of Doha’s busiest routes last month to create a new intersection at the bottom end of the old Rumailah Park.
Set to be complete by mid-November, the additional junction will allow motorists to get onto Majlis Al Taawon Street from the Corniche, or to make a U-turn, ideally reducing congestion further down on the road.
Majlis Al Taawon Street is also being widened with an additional lane being created in each direction, as authorities try to improve capacity of Doha’s infrastructure to cope with the country’s booming population.
According to figures from the Ministry of Development, Planning and Statistics, more than 8,000 vehicles are added to the country’s roads each month.
Since the Corniche construction began, commuters have reported heavy traffic in the area, as lanes have been narrowed to allow the work to get underway.
And as expected, the corniche is bumper to bumper due to the upgrade works. @dohanews #DohaTraffic #Fail
— Khanan (@alikhanan) September 30, 2015
Over an hour in traffic for a route that should take 15 minutes. Stuck on corniche. #Dohatraffic – this is really bad roadwork planning.
— Hooriya Hussain (@hooriyahussain_) September 30, 2015
The Corniche underwent a $55 million redevelopment during 2013/14, when its roundabouts were replaced with intersections and fitted with “smart” traffic lights, which were designed to better control vehicle flow.
However, in August Ashghal said that parts of the top layer of asphalt had become damaged, on the stretch of road between the post office and the National Theater, necessitating repairs.
This sparked complaints of shoddy workmanship from members of Qatar’s Central Municipal Council.
Thoughts?