Bahraini minister inspects road works progress

Works, Municipalities & Urban Planning Minister Essam bin Abdullah Khalaf visited the 2nd interchange along Sh. Khalifa bin Salman Highway and the road linking Roundabouts 13-18 in Hamad Town.
The Minister closely inspected work progress in the project. The Minister was accompanied by Roads Assistant Undersecretary Huda Fakhro and the project's supervising team.
The project is part of a string of projects presently being implemented as part of GCC Fund Program, which reflect the Government’s concern towards supporting development in the Kingdom and providing proper infrastructure services that accommodate people’s needs.
At the beginning of his tour, the Minister received a detailed presentation about progress in the project from Chief of Special Projects at the Roads Projects & Maintenance Directorate Sayed Badr Alawi, where he explained that the overall progress in the project amounted to 10%, while progress in laying the foundations reached 75%, and progress in the flyover columns reached 33%. Work on the structure of the flyover is expected to commence in January 2015. 35% progress has been achieved in the road linking Roundabouts 13-18.
The new flyover will provide a direct access to Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway; specifically for the traffic coming from Roundabout 18 in Hamad Town, the residential areas in the vicinity and also the Western villages, and heading north towards Manama.
In his tour, the Minister inspected the foundations and columns built for the flyover, in addition to the road works involved in the implementation of the road linking Roundabouts 13-18 in Hamad Town and the diversion of services existing at the project location.
The Minister urged the team in charge of supervision of the project and the project consultant to coordinate with all the concerned entities in order to overcome any obstacles facing the project contractor and complete the project on time. He also stressed the importance of looking into all traffic safety measures within the project, especially that related to safety barriers along the flyover and on the roads; to check their effectiveness prior to construction and installation and also to ensure they are being properly implemented.
According to recent traffic studies, it is expected that the new interchange will alleviate traffic movement heading towards Sh. Khalifa bin Salman Highway from Hamad Town via the interchange parallel to Roundabouts 14 by 40%. Studies indicate that the present traffic travelling along the interchange leading to Roundabout 14 amounts to 3500 vehicles/hour during the peak time.
The project comprises of creating a 2 direction flyover with 2 lanes on each direction. The new 24.2m wide flyover is to pass over the Sh. Khalifa bin Salman Highway at a length of 280km. Works also include constructing a 2 way road with 2 lanes on each direction at a length of 1.5m; connecting Roundabouts 13 to 18 in Hamad Town. This will alleviate traffic congestion along Sh. Hamad Highway and other internal roads in Hamad Town. Work also includes lighting and traffic safety works, paving roads in the vicinity of the project, landscaping and forestation works.
The project is considered to be the 3rd entrance to Hamad Town from Sh. Khalifa bin Salman Highway, following the completion of 2 previous entrances at Roundabouts 6 & 14, which was done through the creation of 2 main traffic signal controlled underpasses as part of phase 5 of Sh. Khalifa bin Salman Highway. In order to continue linking Hamad Town to the Western villages, work has commenced to create the flyover linking Roundabout 18 to Sh. Khalifa bin Salman Highway.
The BD7,466,985 project was awarded by the Tender Board, in coordination with the Saudi Development Fund, to a consortium of Nass Contracting and Al-Yamama Company. Work is scheduled to be completed in December 2015.