DM plans new roads, 7 pedestrian bridges

According to Mattar Al Tayer, Deputy Director-General of Dubai Municipality, a Dh30.93 million project has been approved by the Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Industry and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, for constructing roads in Al Khawaneej area. Works on this project also involve levelling 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 Dh16.15 million road project in Al Warqa Four, 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 kilometres, 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 Dh21 million. The project which was finalised earlier this year after taking 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 — is expected to be over by the end of 2006, he added.

Al Tayer 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 Co-operative Society), 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 projects would further contribute to enhancing road safety and ensuring smooth traffic in several busy areas of the Emirate. He noted that the new bridges would have both stairs and elevators for the convenience of all pedestrians, while the structures would be covered to provide users a shade from the sun.

Al Tayer said 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 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.