Opening comes 4 months ahead of schedule
Ensures free-flowing traffic fro m HIA towards Al Maamoura, Al Waab and cuts 90% of travel time
Ashghal accomplishes 790km of
expressway networks
Ashghal projects ‘unaffected by blockade due to dependence on local products and contractors’
The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has partially opened a new 900m bridge along Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor in the Bu Hamour area.
The new bridge provides free-flowing traffic bypassing the junction between Al Shehaimiya Street and Bu Hamour Street along Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor in front of Abu Hamour Petrol Station, reducing travelling time through the junction by more than 90%, Ashghal has said in a statement.
The opening has been executed in co-ordination with the General Directorate of Traffic.
The new bridge connects traffic along Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor from Hamad International Airport (HIA) towards Al Thumama, Mesaimeer, Wholesale Market Street through Haloul Intersection, Salwa Road and Al Mamoura up to Al Waab and Al Rayyan. The new bridge has been opened four months ahead of the targeted completion date, Ashghal has stressed. The new bridge is “an artery lying in the heart of a densely populated area that contains many significant facilities” such as petrol stations, shopping malls and markets (such as Wholesale Market), schools and health institutions.
The new bridge consists of a four-lane dual carriageway with a capacity of about 16,000 vehicles per hour, and road users will be able to reach directly from Salwa Road and Haloul Junction towards the Industrial Area road and HIA without using the signallised intersection between Al Shehaimiya Street and Bu Hamour Street on Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor in front of the Bu Hamour petrol station.
Eng Youssef al-Emadi, director of Projects Affairs at Ashghal, stressed that the authority’s projects were not affected by the unfair siege - that began nearly three years ago - and that the pace of work continued in accordance with the plans. Ashghal relied heavily on the local factor by using materials made in Qatar and engaging local companies, achieving a tangible boom in the country’s infrastructure sector, he added. Engineer Bader Darwish, Highway Projects Department manager, confirmed that Ashghal has completed the implementation of about 790km of highway network, which is considered a “good testimony to the fact that the construction process was not affected by the unjust siege of about three years”.
Ashghal has opened most of the highway network during the siege period, which caused a “qualitative shift in the movement of goods and people in all parts of the country”, especially strategic areas, ports, Hamad International Airport, the Industrial Area and other vital facilities, he noted.
He added that the Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor has witnessed several openings since its inception in 2019, and more than 70% of the vital road works have been completed. Once the entire project is completed, it will link the southern and northern parts of Doha without the need to pass through Doha Expressway and 22 February Street.
Engineer Abdulla al-Naimi from the Highway Projects Department at Ashghal confirmed that the Bu Hamour bridge has been designed and built with the latest technologies used in the construction of bridges, involving the installation and assembly of pre-cast concrete parts using giant cranes. The bridge consists of 100 concrete pieces, each weighing about 200 tonnes.
He added that the bridge will reduce travel time by more than 90% for commuters from Mesaimeer Bridge in the direction of Halul Intersection and vice-versa.