The United Arab Emirates has upgraded the two-lane carriageway Al Ain-Dubai Road to a four-lane expressway at a cost of AED1.1bn ($299.4m).

The development and reconstruction work on the 54km-long stretch from the Al Hilli Roundabout to the town of Al Faqaa began in 2007.

Al Ain municipality roads and infrastructure executive director Abdullah Hamdan Al Ameri said that the linking road upgrade project has been completed and will be open to traffic after the formal inauguration of the expressway.

According to Al Ameri, the municipality modernised the expressway to meet the requirements of the growing traffic.

Project manager Abdul Rahman Al Shateeri said that the upgrade work was completed in two stages and the stretch has been installed with an environmentally-friendly lighting system.

The development, which was initiated to widen and upgrade the dual carriageway into an expressway up to the border of Dubai, also widened the Al Ain section with extra two lanes in each direction, as well as keeping enough space to construct a fifth lane on each side if needed.

The Al Ain-Dubai Road consists of a three-lane dual carriageway from Al Foaa onwards in Dubai and will have a maximum speed limit of 140km/h, whereas the speed limit for the three-lane Dubai section of the road is set at 120km/h.

Radars have been installed on the Al Ain section to catch vehicles exceeding the speed limit of over 160km/h.