New bridge, roads open near Abu Dhabi airport

The Municipality of Abu Dhabi City on Tuesday opened the newly-built bridge and interconnecting roads and fly overs at Mafraq junction near the Abu Dhabi International Airport for traffic.

Built with a cost of Dh830 million, the bridge and the roads interlink Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain and Ghuwaifat in Al Gharbia (formerly Western Region) on Saudi border. The municipality announced the conclusion of all construction works at the interchanges which have been opened in phases, comprising 27 lanes with a total capacity of 24,000 vehicles per hour.

One of the vital transport projects of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the main Dubai-Al Ghuwaifat Highway dual bridge, which extends 75 metres in length, comprises eight lanes (four in each direction) measuring 54 metres in width, 10 metres in height, and has eight supporting pillars of a 25-metre span.

Engineer Abdullah Al Shamsi, acting Executive Director of Municipal Infrastructure and Assets Sector, said: “The project comes in the context of the municipality’s multiple contributions and pioneering projects to develop the city in keeping with the economic and social drive, improve the quality of services in the capital and renovate roads and infrastructure sector.”

He also said the reconstruction of Al Mafraq Bridge aims at ensuring high level of service and traffic safety matching to the development projects witnessed by the emirate in all service facilities in accordance with Plan Abu Dhabi 2030.

“The new project provides a traffic solution to the rising and intersecting traffic movement in this location and a substantial improvement in the traffic flow in all directions at three different levels,” the department said in a statement. It is part of a Dh10 billion-transport infrastructure being carried out by Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport (DoT), linking the emirate with Saudi Arabia and rest of Al Gharbia.