Bahrain: Construction work is underway on a BD52 million project that will transform traffic flow in the Southern Governorate.
Two major roundabouts, Alba and Nuwaidrat, are set to be replaced with flyovers as part of the three-year project.
Traffic will begin to be redirected towards the end of January and the first flyovers are expected to be open in two years.
The second phase of the project was inaugurated yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, in the presence of Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Minister Essam Khalaf, Energy Minister Dr Abdulhussain Mirza and other government officials.
“When this intersection is complete, it will greatly reduce traffic, especially during rush hour,” said Shaikh Khalid.
“The two intersections are two of the most important in the Southern Governorate, which link both north to south and east to west.
“We thank our neighbour Kuwait for financing the project as part of the Gulf Development Fund for Bahrain.
“The project will cost a little more than BD50m and will take 36 months to complete.”
Mr Khalaf said the project was part of the Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Highway redevelopment.
“Developing these intersections is part of the Shaikh Jaber project, which we started on with Umm Al Hassam and the Sitra bridge,” he explained.
“Now we’re developing this strategic round, moving from a roundabout to a three-level flyover.
“The ground level will be traffic light and intersection, the first flyover will go from north to south and from Estiqlal Highway to King Hamad Highway, while the second flyover will lead from Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Highway to the south.
“The Nuwaidrat flyover will be a single flyover with the intersection below.
“Due to the project being close to the oil refinery and Riffa Electricity Station, it will present us with many challenges to complete the development while continuing to support these essential services.”
Mr Khalaf said the project would heavily reduce congestion in the area, which witnesses more than 10,000 cars during rush-hour traffic. “Everyone knows the current situation of the roundabout and how people are suffering due to traffic,” he added.
“During rush hour, at the moment, we have 5,400 cars an hour on Alba roundabout and 5,000 on Nuwaidrat – we need to ensure everyone’s safety.”
During yesterday’s inauguration event, the ministry’s projects and roads maintenance head Sayed Bader Alawi gave a breakdown of the BD52m cost. “The preliminary stage took place from November 2014 to October 2015, at a cost of BD3.95m,” he said.
“The second stage will be from August 2015 to August 2018 and will cost an estimated BD46.85m.
“The cost of converting cables and electricity, as well as new distribution stations is BD11m and water pipelines is BD2m.
“Moving and reconstructing the Bapco pipeline will cost approximately BD5.4m, while the Batelco lines will be BD720,000.
“If all the bridges are put one after the other, this project will consist of 2km of bridges and 81km of roads.
“We, of course, will have traffic redirected – we need to study these and see what the issues that arise are and adjust the redirections as necessary to make it as fast and as easy as possible.
“Alba roundabout will begin in approximately a year after the Nuwaidrat roundabout.”
Ministry assistant under-secretary for road affairs Huda Fakhro said billboards would be put up to give people a breakdown of dates and stages.
“We appropriated 22 plots of land for a cost of BD5.6m because we needed the area to expand for services and wider roads,” she said.
“We hope that removing the roundabout will reduce accidents because there will be less stopping – at traffic lights and roundabouts there are statistically more accidents, but people could still speed, for instance.”
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