Al Wahda Road Project, United Arab Emirates

The Al Wahda Road project in the emirate city of Sharjah will upgrade Al Wahda Street into a double-deck expressway. The project will ease congestion on the street, which receives over 110,000 vehicles a day.

The project will revamp the 6km-long road, which includes four interchanges: Cultural Square, Shaikh Humaid Bin Saqr Al Qasimi Square (Flying Saucer Roundabout), Yarmook junction and Abu Shagara. The junctions and roundabouts of the new Al Wahda road will have flyovers, tunnels and bridges.

In 2006, the project cost was estimated to be AED477m ($130m). By 2009, the total estimated cost of the project escalated to AED800m ($217.7m).

By August 2009, the first phase of the project, including the underpass at Cultural Square and the Flying Saucer junction, were completed and opened to public.

The first phase was completed six days ahead of deadline.

The project is expected to be completed by September 2010.

Al Wahda Road project

The project is being executed in three phases: Cultural Square underpass, Flying Saucer Roundabout and Abu Shagara bridge.

The Cultural Square Interchange will consist of an underpass below the Cultural Square roundabout. The underpass will allow the movement of traffic to and from the Sheikh Mohammad Bin Al Qassimi Road.

The second phase is the Flying Saucer junction, which will include a 550m-long viaduct.

The third phase is the Abu Shagara Interchange, which will consist of a 1.6km double-deck bridge between King Faisal Interchange and the Gold Centre intersection leading to the airport road.

The elevated part of the deck will have two lanes in each direction and will allow free flow of traffic along Al Wahda street by-passing the Abu Shagara and the Gold Centre intersection.

Another part of the road will pass over the Flying Saucer roundabout bypassing the junction to reach Al Wahda street.

Eventually the roundabout will be replaced by an intersection with signals.

Al Wahda Road tunnels

The Cultural Square Interchange will include a tunnel at the Cultural Square. The tunnel will have a ramp portion of around 500m on either side and will be closed for 175m.

Project contractors

In 2006, Sharjah's Directorate of Public Works assigned a contract to develop the road to Halcrow, an international infrastructure development company. The biggest challenge for Halcrow was to relocate major utilities on the corridor and divert traffic.

Al Wahda Road project construction

As part of the project’s construction, Halcrow had to create alternative traffic routes and divert major utilities before closing Al Wahda Street. Utilities such as water pumping mains, 132KV cables and 30-inch gas pipelines were moved to the site. Halcrow improved the junctions and roundabouts and widened about 20km of road to enable an easier flow of traffic.

Upgradation began in 2007. To commence further works, the street between Al Falah Plaza and Cultural Square was closed during 2008.

In 2009, the Cultural Square Interchange and the Flying Saucer junction were converted into a tunnel and a bridge and were opened for public use.

At this time, the work on the flyover bridge was 40% complete. About 30% of the work on the tunnel near the Liberty company has been completed and traffic signals will be installed at the Abu Shagara intersection.

The remaining portion of the project includes the construction of a viaduct and underpass at the Abu Shagara bridge and the Yarmook junction, expected to be completed by September 2010.

Al Wahda Road future

After completion of the road construction, traffic lights will be installed at the Yarmook crossroads and the bridge at the Cultural Square Interchange leading to the airport. Traffic lights will also be installed at the Abu Shagara crossroads and the tunnel leading to the King Abdul Aziz Street, as well as another bridge starting from the Yarmook crossroads leading to the Al Wahda Street.