Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has carried out a series of improvements at seven locations across Sheikh Zayed Road to ease traffic congestions and increase vehicular flow on the road.

“These improvements are part of RTA’s new vision aimed at being ‘The world leader in seamless & sustainable mobility’ through considerably cutting tailbacks along this important traffic corridor and its extensions. Such improvements involved a substantial increase in the capacity of the Road and contributed to the smooth flow of traffic,” said Eng. Maitha bin Adai, CEO of Traffic and Roads Agency, RTA.

RTA introduced seven improvements on Sheikh Zayed Road in total. The 1^st improvement was the widening of Exit 39 (near Mall of Emirates) from one lane to two lanes, which doubled the intake of the road from 1800 vehicles to 3600 vehicles per hour. As such, it shorted the journey time from Sheikh Zayed Road to Umm Suqeim from 12 minutes to 1.45 minute and reduced the length of the queue from 1000 m to 50 m only.

The 2^nd involved improving Umm Amara Street in the direction of Safa Park Interchange to ease the bottleneck at the R/A and increase the flow of traffic in the direction of Abu Dhabi.

“The 3^rd improvement entailed changes in the free right lane branching out from the 2^nd of December St to Sheikh Zayed Road in the direction of Abu Dhabi. Works included increasing the storage lane capacity, which increased the traffic flow on the Trade Centre R/A and reduced the length of the queue,” explained Bin Adai.

The 4^th improvement was on Al Thowima Street at Al Barsha (near Novotel Hotel) to ease the congestion on the service road and improve the accessibility to internal areas of Sheikh Zayed Road.

The 5^th improvement was on Sheikh Zayed Road nearby Shangri-la Hotel and the first interchange in the direction of Abu Dhabi. A new lane was added, which increased the capacity to 1800 vehicles per hour. A third lane was added at the exit in the direction of Dubai Mall, which increased the capacity to 5400 vehicles per hour. These changes eased the traffic movement on the Sheikh Zayed Road near the first interchange.

The 6^th improvement was also near the first interchange of the Sheikh Zayed Road in the direction of Sharjah nearby Dusit Hotel. A new lane was added with a capacity of 1800 vehicles per hour, which reduced the waiting time at the entry of the service road. More improvements were made to the entry and exit points to improve the flow of traffic.

The 7^th and final improvement was near the fourth interchange in the direction of Sharjah (Al Manara Exit) where improvements were made to the entry/exit points of the interchange to ease the traffic flow on the Sheikh Zayed Road and cut the snarls. It will increase the capacity from 10,800 vehicles per hour to 12,600 vehicles per hour. Works also included the addition of one lane near the exit to the service road, after Noor Bank Metro Station in the direction of the exit to Umm Al Shief.