Works Minister inspects Alba, Nuwaidrat

Manama, June 29 (BNA): Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Essam bin Abdulla Khalaf toured Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Highway Revamp location - Alba and Nuwaidrat Roundabout Interchange. He was accompanied by Works Affairs Undersecretary Ahmed Al Khayyat, Roads Assistant Undersecretary Huda Fakhro, Roads Projects and Maintenance Director Sayyed Bader Alawi, a number of engineers. Khalaf described the project as one of the biggest and most important infrastructure projects in the Kingdom of Bahrain; bearing a lot of challenges during implementation including the amount of traffic and having many ground services on site, such as electricity, water and gas. The Minister and his companions received a detailed presentation on work progress, the present and future work phases and how the project contractor can handle ground cables existing on the work site; with the option of transferring all such cables to more convenient locations in coordination with the concerned teams at the Electricity & Water Authority, Bapco and other service entities. The Minister stressed the importance of reporting any incidents, obstacles or difficulties to officials at the Ministry to promptly find solutions to such issues. He also reiterated the importance of investigating the reasons behind delays in order to avoid that in future projects. The tour also referred to the phase of traffic diversions on Alba Roundabout location, which is planned to commence before the beginning of August. The space in the middle of the roundabout is to be cleared prior to installing the foundations for the flyover. Works involved in the project include transforming the existing Alba Roundabout into a 3 level interchange that consists of a traffic signal controlled at-grade intersection, a flyover with 3 lanes on each direction; carrying traffic along Estiqlal Highway and King Hamad Highway, another one-way flyover with 2 lanes carrying traffic coming from Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Highway towards King Hamad Highway. The project also includes transforming the existing Nuwaidrat Roundabout into a 2 level interchange, one to be controlled with traffic signals and the other to be made into a flyover with 3 lanes on each direction; carrying traffic along Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Highway. Work includes revamping and expanding a large part of Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Highway, Estiqlal Highway, Al Moaskar Highway and King Hamad Highway; up until Avenue 96, limiting entrance and exit along Avenue 96 to certain accesses, re-constructing Avenue 15 heading South from Nuwaidrat Roundabout, constructing a new dual road connecting Industrial Ma’ameer to King Hamad Highway South of Alba Roundabout and revamping the road leading to the Oil Refinery Plant and the entrances and exits to the Civil Defense and Bapco.