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Sheikh Zayed Road traffic jams to ease with 7 improvements

Dubai - Travel times cut as new lanes are added at different locations.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has carried out a “series of improvements” at seven locations on the Sheikh Zayed Road to ease traffic congestions. The improvements have increased the vehicles capacity on the arterial highway.

Maitha bin Adai, CEO of Traffic and Roads Agency, RTA, detailed the seven improvements:

>> Exit 39 (near Mall of Emirates) has been widened from one lane to two. This has doubled the intake of the road from 1,800 vehicles per hour to 3,600. It has shortened the journey time from the Sheikh Zayed Road to Umm Suqeim from 12 minutes to 1.45 and reduced the 1km queue to 50 metres.

>> Improvements to the Umm Amara Street towards Safa Park Interchange have eased the bottleneck at the roundabout and increased the flow of traffic in the direction of Abu Dhabi.

>> Changes have been made to the free right lane branching out from the 2nd of December St to Sheikh Zayed Road in the direction of Abu Dhabi. Works included increasing the storage lane capacity, which boosted the traffic flow on the Trade Centre roundabout and reduced the length of the queue.

>> Improvements on Al Thowima Street at Al Barsha (near Novotel Hotel) have eased the congestion on the service road and improved the accessibility to internal areas of the Sheikh Zayed Road.

>> The fifth improvement was near the Shangri-la Hotel and the first interchange in the direction of Abu Dhabi. A new lane was added, which increased the capacity to 1,800 vehicles per hour. A third lane was added at the exit in the direction of The Dubai Mall, which increased the capacity to 5,400 vehicles per hour. These changes have eased the traffic movement on the Sheikh Zayed Road near the first interchange.

>> Another improvement was made near the first interchange of the Sheikh Zayed Road in the direction of Sharjah. A new lane was added with a capacity of 1,800 vehicles per hour, which reduced the waiting time at the entrance of the service road. More improvements were made to the entry and exit points to improve the flow of traffic.

>> Improvements were made to the entry/exit points of the fourth interchange in the direction of Sharjah (Al Manara Exit). It will increase the capacity from 10,800 vehicles per hour to 12,600. Works also included the addition of one lane near the exit to the service road, after the Noor Bank Metro Station, in the direction of the exit to Umm Al Shief.