RTA to open two-lane tunnel linking Airport Street and Marrakech Street
Tunnel is part of the improvement of the Airport-Marrakech Streets Junction Project
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has said that it is set to open a two-lane tunnel linking the Airport Street and Marrakech Street by Friday, July 20, 2018.
In a statement, Nabeel Mohammed Salih, the director of roads at the RTA’s Traffic and Roads Agency said that the tunnel, which is part of the improvement of Airport-Marrakech Streets Junction Project, is aimed at providing smooth traffic flow from Airport Street to Marrakech Street, in a densely populated area that has several schools and public and private entities in the neighbourhood.
“The scope of work includes the construction of two bridges on the Airport Street of three lanes in each direction, and a ramp branching out of a downtown-bound bridge leading to Dubai International Airport Terminal 3, thus bypassing the light signal,” he explained.
“It also included the construction of another bridge leading to the premises of the Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (Ex-Dubai Airshow). The project will cut the waiting time at the junction from seven minutes to less than a minute.”
Salih pointed out that the RTA has opened all bridges of the four junctions on Airport Street, over several phases.
“The first, Al Rashidiya Junction, included the construction of two bridges of three lanes in each direction on the Airport Street. The second was the Airport-Nad Al Hamar Streets Junction involving the construction of a two-lane ramp to serve the traffic from Nad Al Hamar Street to the Airport Street,” he said.
“The third was the Marrakech-Airport streets’ junction which involved the construction of two bridges of three lanes in each direction along with a ramp leading to Airport Terminal 3 without waiting at the light signal.
“It also included the construction of another bridge leading to the premises of the Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects and a two-lane underpass to serve the traffic heading leftward from the Airport Street in the direction of Marrakech Street,” Salih added.
The fourth junction covered upgrading of the Airport-Casablanca Streets Junction, he explained further. He pointed out that this was achieved through the construction of an additional single-lane ramp to serve traffic from Airport Street heading towards Casablanca Street, thus eliminating the waiting time at the light signal.
“It also included the construction of an alternative street for traffic inbound from Al Garhoud, enabling direct access to Terminal 1 and 3 of the Airport, besides increasing the number of lanes of Casablanca Street in the direction of Al Garhoud from three to four lanes.
“The project has considerably reduced the total waiting time at Casablanca junction and eased tailbacks generated by the overlapping traffic between vehicles heading towards Casablanca junction and others coming from Terminal 1 heading leftwards to Casablanca Street,” the senior official said.
