The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) opened a bridge at Marrakesh Street intersection on Airport Street on Friday 15th September 2017, as part of the second contract of the Airport Street improvement project. The opening of the bridge will help ease traffic flow towards Deira.
The Marrakech intersection project includes an overpass on Airport Street, with three lanes in each direction, and a direct ramp from the bridge heading to Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport, thus avoiding the traffic lights. The intersection also includes constructing a two-lane tunnel to serve traffic heading left from Airport Street towards Marrakech Street. The project will cut down the waiting time on the intersection from seven minutes to less than one minute.
The traffic movement on Airport Street (Marrakech Intersection) on Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road and Al Khawaneej Street, will pass through Rashidiya Intersection in the direction of Deira through the new flyover. Motorists heading to Umm Rumool may take the right lanes as per the directional signs towards the signalised intersection. The RTA will close the traffic movement coming from Terminal 1 of Dubai International Airport heading towards Deira to complete the remaining works at the new bridge at Casablanca intersection (Cargo Village). It will also provide an alternative route through Street No. 51 passing via Casablanca Street.
The improvement of the Airport Road Project is part of RTA’s plan to accommodate the projected growth in the number of passengers using the Dubai International Airport, which is expected to shoot to 92 million passengers by 2020. The traffic study highlighted the importance of finalising the project by the end of 2017. The project will contribute to increasing the capacity of the Airport Road by 5,000 vehicles per hour, improving the traffic safety and reducing the travel time on Airport Street from Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road to Casablanca Street from 30 minutes to just 5 minutes. The project will also cut the waiting time at Marrakesh Street intersection from 7 minutes to less than one minute.