Ashghal opens North Canal Crossing Bridge

Reducing travel times on northern areas of Doha, the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) opened the North Canal Crossing (NCC) Bridge, part of Lusail Expressway, to the public on Friday. Major interchanges and underpasses of the project are at the advanced stages of structural construction, with 3 million cubic metres of materials excavated, according to authorities.

The partially-opened bridge is a 200-metre-long vital crossing between Lusail City and north of the Pearl Interchange, currently under construction. The opened part of the bridge will provide two lanes in each direction and it forms a section of the permanent road. The North Canal Crossing Bridge upgrade is due to be completed in the final quarter of 2017.

The bridge opening will reduce travel times to residential and commercial developments in Legtaifiya area and will provide easy access to Lusail City and north areas of Qatar, according to Ashghal.

Lusail Expressway is one of the Expressway Programmes key projects currently under construction. The project involves 5.3km of four-lane highway in each direction and three major interchanges in Northern Doha. In addition to the upgraded North and South Canal Crossings, it will deliver three major interchanges at Al Wadha, The Pearl and Onaiza, each as high as four levels, comprising a network of vehicle and Light Rail tunnels, underpasses, flyovers and junctions.

Meanwhile, six major tunnels at The Pearl and Onaiza Interchanges and the underpass at Al Wadha are at advanced stages of structural construction and utility works.

Over 3,000,000 cubic metres of materials have been excavated to enable works on these sites, to date. Some 38,000 metres of telecommunication, water and electricity utility network lines have been laid, while 513,000 cubic metres of concrete and 55,000 cubic metres of rebar steel works have been utilised to deliver the current completion.

The world-class infrastructures have been designed to meet the future transport needs of Qatar and will facilitate faster, safer and seamless traffic movement of people and goods. The expressway will serve local tourist attractions such as the Katara Cultural Village, growing residential communities such as The Pearl, as well as key commercial and diplomatic areas. Most notably, it will provide direct, free flowing connection to the rapidly developing Lusail City Development.

Ashghal has also ensured the preservation of local marine ecology throughout construction of the North and South Canal Crossings. Ashghal has implemented a monitoring programme which uses marine conservation techniques to regularly assess environmental conditions and seagrass health.