Farayand Virtual World

* DM to construct new roads in Al Khawaneej, Al Warqa 4 & seven pedestrian bridges

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Industry and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, has approved road projects worth Dhs68 million including construction of new roads in Al Khawaneej and Al Warqa 4 and seven new pedestrian bridges in different parts of the city.

According to Mattar Al Tayer, Deputy Director General of Dubai Municipality, the new projects would further contributing towards enhancing road safety and ensuring smooth traffic in several busy areas of the emirate.

He noted that a Dhs30.93 million project had been approved by the municipality chairman for constructing roads in Al Khawaneej area. Works of this project also involve leveling of sandy areas, construction of a round-about on the existing Al Khawaneej Road, an intersection between Al Khawaneej Road and the Academic City Road, service roads, street lighting, road signage and landscaping works.

The Dhs16.15 million roads project in Al Warqa 4, Al Tayer explained, would involve construction of an 8.1 km long road network along with street lighting, conversion of the single carriage Nawakshout Road into a dual carriage way with two lanes on both directions for a length of 5.6 kilometers, and construction of two roundabouts in between.

The third project, he said, is construction of seven pedestrian bridges in different parts of the city at a total cost of Dhs21 million. Construction of all the seven bridges is expected to be over by the end of 2006. The project, which was finalised earlier this year, took into consideration the rise in population and increase in number of vehicles on the roads, both of which continue on the upward trend with the economic boom in the emirates.

He explained that the project follows a study on vehicular traffic and pedestrians in various locations in the city, which revealed the need for pedestrian bridges for enhancing road safety for both motorists and pedestrians.

The bridges will be constructed at locations where pedestrian movement and traffic flow are relatively higher. The locations include the Abu Hail Street (close to the Grand Mosque), Al Nahda Street (near Union Cooperative Soceity), Abu Baker Al Siddique Street (near Al Gaz mosque), the Al Maktoum Street (close to Al Khaleej Palace Hotel), the Airport Road (near Cargo Village underpass), the Casablanca Street (Dubai Tennis Stadium), and the Baniyas Road (near Sheraton Hotel).

The new bridges would have both stairs and lifts so that everyone can use them. They would also have covers. In designing the pedestrian bridges on Bani Yas and Al Maktourm streets, the busy nature of the surrounding areas has been taken into consideration.

The municipality, when selecting areas that require new pedestrian bridges, takes into account a number of factors such as movement of pedestrians, percentage of accidents involving pedestrians, density of the crossing, and the suitability of the proposed location.

At present there are already a total of 16 pedestrian bridges in the emirate, located at sensitive spots where the average daily number of pedestrians and road traffic loads are higher. These footbridges contribute largely to reduce traffic accidents involving pedestrians as well as help ease traffic congestion on the city's roads.

(Source:www.Gulf News.com)