Abu Dhabi opens part of mega tunnel project

Abu Dhabi authorities opened parts of a mega tunnel project to traffic in the capital, largely easing pressure on roads after more than three years of daily painful bottlenecks in one of the busiest parts of the city.

Massive debris resulting from years of work was removed to unravel a modern road network that attracted hundreds of cars just after it was inaugurated by the Abu Dhabi municipality on Friday.

The opened parts include roads linking Al Salam street with Hamdan in the town centre and the nearby Falah street and nearly 740 car park spaces.

“The whole tunnel project is expected to be completed within the next few months and it will have a capacity of 12,000 cars per hour at a time,” the municipality said in a statement.

Once finished, the Dh-five-billion tunnel will be the longest traffic underpass in the Middle East and will largely ease traffic in the eastern part of the city.

Officials said more than 90 per cent of Al-Salam tunnel venture has been completed since it was launched more than three years ago as one of the largest road construction projects ever to be carried out in the UAE.

“The project will be completed before the end of 2011 and it will be open for traffic in both directions,” the municipality said. The project had been due to be completed at the end of 2010 but was delayed because of technical and natural obstacles. officials cited such hurdles as a large network of power and water cables and pipes, which they said had to be avoided during the construction process as they pass under residential areas.

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.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.

“The project is vital for the Capital’s development plans in the long term as it is intended to cope with the expected large increase in the population and traffic,” said Jumma Al Junaibi, the Municipality’s Director General.

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