Qatar’s Sports Roundabout is going, going…gone

By Doha News Team

Demolition of Sports Roundabout. Credit: Umer Shabib

Central Doha’s last major roundabout has finally bitten the dust, much to the delight of many residents.

Bulldozers could be seen demolishing Sports Roundabout in Al Sadd yesterday.

The junction was notorious among motorists for its huge traffic delays. But it also served as a key landmark in the area, thanks to its 1980s-style concrete sculpture, which depicted different sports.

Sports Roundabout in its old days. Credit: Kombizz Koshani/Flickr

Ashghal announced last month that the roundabout’s days were numbered.

At the time, the public works authority said reconstruction into a signal-controlled intersection would start within months.

Saying goodbye

Online, many took a few moments to mark the roundabout’s demise yesterday. Some showed more nostalgia than others for the distinctive structure.

Resident Rehan Quereshi told Doha News: “I don’t mind the roundabout disappearing. It was quite a bottleneck to and back from work.”

Photos from yesterday morning showed that what remained of the roundabout was only a tangle of mangled reinforcing bars.

Additionally, two of the sculpture’s supporting legs could still be seen, amid a large mound of concrete rubble.

https://twitter.com/albacridhe/status/875244229886304257

Seems Sports Roundabout is going to be signaled intersection @dohanews pic.twitter.com/EEbGHokuPo

— Salman Khan (@de_ingeniero) June 15, 2017

One more iconic landmark, the sports roundabout, makes way for a traffic lights junction. @dohanews @iloveqatar @ILQLive #Doha #Qatar pic.twitter.com/ioccN3LHq7

— Rehan Quereshi (@rehanquereshi) June 15, 2017

Cause of congestion

Sports R/A has long been one of the busiest junctions in Doha because it links Al Rayyan Road with Mohammed bin Thani St. and Jawaan St. next to the Hamad General Hospital complex.

As Qatar’s population rapidly expanded, Sports and other roundabouts of old struggled to cope with the increasingly heavy traffic, leading to long queues and accidents aplenty.

As a result, Ashghal has undertaken a program of replacing the main roundabouts in town with signal-controlled intersections.