Motorists driving near Education City are in for some traffic relief this week following the opening of a stretch of Al Rayyan Road.
The eight-lane expressway includes 2.9km of road from west of Khalid bin Abdullah Al Attiyah Roundabout (New Al Rayyan Roundabout) to east of Bani Hajer Roundabout.
Its opening marks the completion of the first phase of the Al Rayyan Road Upgrade project, Ashghal has announced.
It said the project was opened ahead of schedule, but phase one was originally slated to be completed by the end of 2016.
What it entails
The new roads are four lanes in each direction, and include some side and service streets.
However, only three lanes in each direction will be open right now as other works on the project are completed, the public works authority said in a statement.
The first phase also includes three interchanges. Two of them, between Al Rayyan Road and Al Shafi St., and Al Rayyan Road and Al Qalaa St., are already completed.
The third, at Al Wajba St., will be done “soon,” Ashghal said.
Meanwhile, new and improved pedestrian and bicycle paths have been constructed to encourage people to walk and use other, more energy-efficient and sustainable means of transport.
Big picture
Work on the massive QR4.5 billion upgrade of 8km of Al Rayyan Road began in 2014.
The second phase of the project has already begun. It 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.
In addition, 5.4km of side and service roads will be revamped as part of this phase.
Six main junctions will also be constructed — the Al Massila interchange, the Al Rayyan interchange, the Bin Zaben interchange, the Khalid bin Abdullah al-Attiyah interchange at Al Rayyan Road, the Old Rayyan interchange at Huwar Street (Furosiya) and the Lebdii interchange at Bu Erayyen road.
Work on this phase was expected to end in the third quarter of 2017. But this has now been pushed back to 2018.
Both phases will include major micro tunneling work, sewage effluent networks, and upgrades to existing electrical and telecommunication networks.
Thoughts?
