Sunday, April 26, 2009

Ready for more chaos?

Our beloved RTA has announced even more chaos on the roads roadworks.

It's all very necessary, it's good for the future and it'll be great when the work is finished...but for those of us here now it means more chaos on critical roads, more delays, probably terminal construction fatigue.

The two areas which will make life more difficult for me are Trade Centre Roundabout, which is being replaced with flyovers and 'signalised intersection', and Al Wasl Road on which the traffic intersections will be replaced with underpasses.

I know we need it, I complain about the traffic bottlenecks on Al Wasl Road every time I'm stuck in them, which is often.

Here's a drawing of what the four Al Wasl Road intersections will become:



They say the construction schedule will be announced shortly but I can't see it taking less than a year at the very least. Beach Road will be a whole lot of fun to drive along while this is going on!

I wonder whether the completion of the Creek extension across Al Wasl Road will be done at the same time? Wouldn't it be a relief to have it all finished and out of the way in one hit rather than a year's chaos for the intersection work followed by another year of chaos for the Creek work.

5 comments:

hut said...

...Creek extension across Al Wasl Road will be done at the same time? Wouldn't it be a relief to have it all finished and out of the way in one hit..Now that would be something, but it won't. I can't see neither the underpasses nor the creek extension bridges being done in less than two years. It's not the roadworks, but there is an awful lot of services runs to be shifted. What I hear is they haven't quite figured out the canal yet.

Grumpy Goat said...

Why underpasses instead of flyovers? Disadvantages of an underpass include:-

* Low point collects rainwater that has to be pumped out;
* Severance of all service pipes, ducts and cables;
* Earthworks, dewatering;
* Ginormous additional cost.

Advantages of an underpass:-

* Less visual intrusion;
* Less traffic noise;
* Less rubbernecking into adjacent property.

samuraisam said...

This will ruin Jumeirah and Al Wasl road.

Cat Russell said...

Its a pity they don't finish the seemingly stalled roadworks around the greens and the springs and so on. Some of these roads show very little progress in almost a year now..

Seabee said...

It's the same in Dubai Marina, Cat.
Endless changes to the roads, some of which were completed, but they never seem to get to the end of it all. No sooner is something finished than they change the plan and dig it all up.