Major road closures, traffic diversion on Dubai Airport Road

Deira-bound motorists are advised to take the new traffic diversion at Rashidiya Interchange.
Deira-bound traffic on the Airport Road coming from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road and Al Khawaneej Road will be diverted to the new flyover. Rashidiya-bound motorists will use the leftward lanes to take them to the existing signalised junction, Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced on last Wednesday.
According to the RTA, the diversion works are part of the first contract of the Airport Road Improvement Project aimed at improving the traffic flow on intersections of the area.
Maitha bin Adai, CEO of RTA's Traffic and Roads Agency said, "The Airport Road Improvement Project will increase the capacity of the Airport Road by an additional 5,000 vehicles per hour. It will also enhance the traffic safety level, and reduce the transit time on the Airport Road from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road up to Casablanca Road from 30 minutes to five minutes."

The first contract for the Airport Road Improvement Project covers the construction of Rashidiya and Casablanca interchanges, and the Project is expected to be fully opened by the end of this year.

"The Airport Road Improvement Project covers improving Rashidiya Interchange through the construction of a flyover on the Airport Road comprising of three lanes in each direction and upgrading the surface intersections. These works are expected to slash the waiting time at the intersection from 13 minutes to less than a minute," bin Adai noted.

The project also includes upgrading the Airport-Casablanca Road Intersection, constructing an additional single-lane ramp to serve the traffic from the Airport Road in the direction of Casablanca Road, thus eliminating the waiting time at the light signal.

It also includes the construction of an alternative road for traffic inbound from Al Garhoud enabling direct access to Terminal 1 and 3 of the Dubai International Airport, besides increasing the number of lanes of Casablanca Road in the direction of Al Garhoud from three to four lanes.

"These improvements will reduce the total waiting time at Casablanca Intersection from three minutes to one minute, and ease the existing tailbacks generated by the overlapping traffic of vehicles heading towards Casablanca Intersection and those coming from Terminal 1 heading leftwards to Casablanca Road," bin Adai explained.

Meanwhile, the RTA will close the traffic from Airport Terminal 1 to Deira in the next phase to complete the remaining works in the new flyover on Casablanca Interchange (Cargo Village), but will provide an alternative corridor through Road 51 and passing along Casablanca Road.

"The RTA is proceeding with the upgrading of the infrastructure of road networks in Dubai Emirate by figuring out integrated solutions for roads as well as land and marine transit systems that are safe for users and compatible with the Dubai Strategic Plan 2021. Such solutions are intended to fulfil the needs of hosting Expo 2020, serve the demographic growth, and encourage the development and investments across the emirate," bin Adai underlined.

angel@khaleejtimes.com