Motorists moving from Al Khail Road toward Al Asayel Street now have a faster route after Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority put a three-lane bridge into service on Sunday. Routed through Al Wasl Club Street, the structure handles up to 3,600 vehicles each hour and trims what had been a 20-minute crossing down to five.
The bridge is one piece of the Oud Metha and Al Asayel Streets Development Project, which RTA says has now reached 90 percent completion. Two more tunnels are slated to open before the close of August. One will tie the Oud Metha Street service road to the Sheikh Rashid Road intersection for drivers headed into Bur Dubai; the other will carry traffic arriving from Dubai–Al Ain Road toward Al Wasl Club Street, easing points where vehicle movements currently cross. A further bridge is planned to handle left turns from Al Asayel Street onto Oud Metha Street.
RTA Director General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors Mattar Al Tayer tied the work to broader planning goals. “Oud Metha and Al Asayel Streets Development Project is being implemented under the directives of the wise leadership as part of the completion of Sheikh Rashid Corridor Development Project, to accommodate the requirements of urban development and population growth,” he said.
According to Al Tayer, the wider effort lifts Oud Metha Street’s two-way throughput by half, from 10,400 vehicles hourly to 15,600. “The project will increase the capacity of Oud Metha Street from 10,400 vehicles per hour in both directions to 15,600 vehicles per hour in both directions, an increase of 50%. It will also reduce travel time from 20 minutes to 5 minutes, an improvement of 75%,” he said.
Four intersections fall within the project’s scope. At the junction of Oud Metha Street and Sheikh Rashid Road, an extra lane is being added to the left-turn ramp feeding traffic toward Al Garhoud Bridge, pushing that ramp’s capacity to 1,800 vehicles per hour. Right-turn lanes running from Sheikh Rashid Road onto Oud Metha Street toward Dubai–Al Ain Road are being widened from two to three, raising capacity there to 4,000 vehicles hourly, while the service road between the existing bridge and the Al Zahrawi Street exit is being upgraded to reduce overlapping movements and improve safety.
Earlier this year, in the first quarter, RTA had already brought two other bridges online. One sits where Oud Metha Street meets Al Asayel and Al Wasl Club streets, carrying 2,400 vehicles per hour across two lanes from Al Asayel Street toward Al Wasl Club Street. The second, at the meeting of Al Wasl Club Street and Al Khail Road, moves traffic toward the Business Bay Crossing over two lanes rated at 3,000 vehicles hourly.
Plans for the Al Wasl Club Street corridor also call for reworking the club’s access road and its entry and exit points, again to smooth out competing movements from the main road. And at the intersection of Al Wasl Club Street with Al Khail Road, a two-lane bridge rated at 3,000 vehicles per hour is set to feed traffic from Al Asayel Street toward the Business Bay Crossing.
