Key road project to partially open after Eid

Abu Dhabi has completed parts of a giant road development project launched more than three years ago and parts of it will be opened to traffic just after Eid Al Fitr holidays, according to operators. The Dh5bn Salam project, involving the region’s longest traffic tunnel, has almost been completed and it will officially be inaugurated before the end of the year, the Abu Dhabi Municipality said in a statement.

Parts of the project linking Salam street near the Tourist Club area in the eastern flank of the capital to Hamdan street in the town centre and Defence road one km away have been completed, the statement said.

“These road works will be opened to traffic just after Eid Al Fitr…they will largely ease congestion,” it said. “With the opening of these roads, nearly 90 per cent of the entire project is now complete…the rest of the project is under way and it will be inaugurated on schedule before the end of this year.”

The Salam street tunnel had been due to be completed at the end of 2010 but was delayed because of technical and topographical reasons.

South Korea’s Samsung Construction is carrying out the project, which will also link the mainland to the nearby Reem Island, where at least 100,000 inhabitants will live. The causeway to the island has already been completed.More than 2,000 workers have been involved in the construction of the three-km tunnel, which starts from the eastern entrance of Abu Dhabi city and runs under Alsalam street towards Port Zayed on the western tip of the capital.

Around two kilometres of the tunnel would be embedded nearly 15 metres underground while the rest would be open and near the surface level.The project has severely disrupted traffic and caused massive road bottlenecks on Salam Street and the Tourist Club area in the eastern part of the Capital but officials say such problems would be a matter of the past once the tunnel and accompanying flyovers are completed.

Officials said the tunnel is part of a long-term blueprint by Abu Dhabi to expand its inhabited areas and road networks to cope with a sharp rise in the population, which officials expect to nearly triple in the next 20 years.
 

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