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29 March 2024

Dubailand access: Traffic flow to your community affected?

Published
By Majorie van Leijen

A major revamp of Dubailand is in the pipeline with the extension of two major roads – Academic City Road and Hessa Street – in addition to improved interchanges, access roads and road facilities.

The rise of new communities in Dubailand, as well as the increased popularity of existing ones have been cited by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) as the motivation to improve access to the developing area, which was once a barren desert landscape.

The RTA has a comprehensive plan to develop new strategic routes to serve commuters within the Dubailand development.

Those developments shall be mainly served by the Academic City Road extension, which runs parallel to both Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road and Emirates Road,” said Maitha bin Adai, CEO of the Traffic and Roads Agency at the RTA.

“The road will contain several grade separated junctions that shall connect and form links between both roads. An example is the extension of Hessa Street,” she added.

In order to estimate whether these changes will affect access to your community, we have sketched the future road network in this part of Dubai, explianed Maitha bin Adai.

Skycourts, Queue Point, Falcon City of Wonders, Arabian Ranches

Currently, Academic City Road links several northern communities to Al Ain Road, starting from Academic City and Silicon Oasis, passing Dubai Safari Park and Mushrif Park and ending at Oud Al Muteena.

With the extension it will serve the communities south of Al Ain Road, connecting to Al Yalayis Street at Dubai Investment Park.

Along the route, it will pass Skycourts, The Villas, Falcon City of Wonders, City of Arabia, Arabian Ranches, Motor City, Studio City, Sports City, Remraam, Mudon and Jumeirah Golf Estates.

Up to this point access to these communities has been limited with only a few exits from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road or Emirates Road.

The extension of Academic City Road will change this, explained bin Adai.

 “These developments shall be mainly served by the Academic City Road extension, which runs parallel to both Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road and Emirates Road.

“The road shall contain several grade separated junctions that shall connect and form links between both roads. “

Remraam, Mudon, Akoya, Golf City, Sports City, Motor City, Studio City

The communities that are located south of Umm Suqeim Road will not only benefit from the extension of Academic City Road.  The extension of Hessa Street will serve this area.

An example of the grade separated junctions on the new Academic City Road is the extension of Hessa Street, explained bin Adai.

Hessa Street currently springs off at Sufouh Road, linking Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Khail Road and Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Road. With the extension it will connect to Academic City Road and finally at Emirates Road.

“To be awarded and planned for completion in the first quarter of 2016, this road extension will serve Remram, Mudon, Akoya, Golf City, Studio City, Motor City and Dubai Sport City.

“It willl also form a strategic link between Emirates Road and Sheikh Zayed Road terminating at Al Sufooh Road,” she added.

The Villas

A new access road to the Villas is in the making, in addition to Academic City Road.

“The RTA is in the process of awarding the construction of an access road serving the Villa Development from/to Emirates Road,” explained Adai.

Currently, access to the Villas is only possible from Al Ain Road, requiring commuters to take the exit to Skycourts and cross this community on route.

With the construction duration anticipated to be 6 months, the road is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016, said bin Adai.

It includes a dual carriageway with a capacity to carry 3000 vehicles per hour. “The capacity of the road will be sufficient to serve the residents of the Villa Development and other future users once connected to the proposed Academic City Road extension.”

The connection with Emirates Road will be in the form of a “right-in/right-out exit and will be accessible for traffic heading from Sharjah towards Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi-bound traffic can utilise the Al Rowaiyah Interchange at the intersection with Dubai Al Ain Road, where they can take a U-turn to reach the new road, bin Adai added.

Silicon Oasis

A few weeks back the access road to Silicon Oasis from Al Ain Road was improved. The existing free-right lane from Academic City Road to Dubai Al Ain Road was expanded from 1 lane to 2lanes.

The main reason for this adjustment was to increase the capacity of the road and reduce traffic congestion, explained bin Adai. “The modifications will cater for the increase in traffic and work on reducing the congestions.”

However, more is in the pipeline for this popular community, as several accesses have been evaluated in line with the approved traffic impact study of the development, said Adai.

“The RTA will coordinate with the master developer to incorporate the proposed accesses as per the study outcomes to incorporate the proposed accesses into the designs planned for construction starting the third quarter of 2016.”