HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Rumaihi has visited the construction sites of the New Orbital Highway and Truck Route.
The Orbital Highway and Truck Route, one of Ashghal's expressway projects, has been designed to link the areas north and south of Qatar without touching the Doha city areas.
At the sites the minister was received by Ashghal president and senior engineer Nasser bin Ali al-Mawlawi and engineers and Infrastructure Affairs director Jalal Yousef al-Salhi, Expressway Department manager Nasser Ghaith al-Kuwari and Technical Office manager Abdulla al-Attiyah.
Prior to the tour, the minister held a meeting with the project's consultants, representatives of the contracting firms and Ashghal officials, each of whom gave a detail briefing on all four contracts of the Orbital Highway.
Subsequently, the minister inspected the onsite progress on Contracts two and four and the milestones achieved so far by Ashghal on the vital project. The main lanes of the Contracts two and four will be open to traffic by the end of 2017.
The New Orbital Highway and Truck Route is considered a vital addition to the road networks of Qatar as it will facilitate a free-flowing traffic route connecting the south of Qatar to its north. The project is located to the west, north and south of Doha, and it will see the construction of around 200km of dual carriageway stretching from Mesaieed in the south to the west of Al Khor in the north.
The Orbital road will include 22 main interchanges, including bridges and underpasses, that will connect it to the main roads and expressways of the East-West Corridor Project, Salwa Road, Dukhan Highway, and Al Shamal Road.
When completed, the Orbital will provide a swift and efficient highway that will provide better connectivity for Qatar's most important industrial areas, namely Mesaieed, New Hamad Port, Dukhan, Al Khor, and Ras Laffan, without touching any main residential communities of Al Wakra, Doha, and Al Khor.
The project is also expected to to alleviate congestion and better manage vehicle movement in those areas.
Consisting of seven lanes in each direction, the new highway and truck route provides heavy vehicles with their own separate roadway with two truck lanes in each direction, allowing traffic to flow freely and safely along the main expressways.
The Orbital will become a remarkably significant project for the movement of people across the country. It is designed to manage up to 1500 heavy goods vehicles per hour in each direction; it can cater to the general traffic volumes at approximately 8,000 vehicles per hour in each direction.
Major infrastructure improvements will be implemented as part of the project, including a storm water drainage network, treated sewage effluent networks for irrigation, communications networks, street lighting, and intelligent traffic systems. Provisions for the future long distance rail and freight rail lines have also been made.
The project will also provide services infrastructure including underpasses for camels, weighing stations, side road parking bays, green landscape and metal beam guardrails along the road.
On his tour the minister inspected the works on Contract two. This section starts at Salwa Road, passing through Dukhan Highway and North Road and up to the North Relief Road. It encompasses approximately 48km new dual carriageway consisting of seven lanes in each direction and includes eight two-level interchanges.
The following are the road interchanges coming up along the route: North Road / New Orbital Highway, New Orbital Highway / Al Gharrafa Expressway, New Orbital Highway /Al Rifa Road, New Orbital Highway/Al Rayyan Mall and Stadium Access Road, Dukhan Highway /New Orbital Highway, New Orbital Highway / Truck Route, New Orbital Highway / Sailiya Street, and Dukhan Highway/Truck Route.
The minister also visited the work sites of Contract four which consist of a 42km road network stretching from Dukhan Road up to west of Al Khor city. This contract includes five multi-level interchanges - Local Access Road, Gharrafa Road, Al Mazroo'a Road, Al Khor Link Road, and North Road.