Projects and road diversions add to traffic woes

A number of on-going projects in and around the city has resulted in excessive road closures and diversions. While, broader roads, highways and bridges are being constructed to solve the traffic congestion, the problem is far from being solved.
Trips to and from Al Wakrah have become more fraught and confusing with unending diversions and road closures, according to motorists.
Recently, the main Al Wakra Street was partially closed with traffic to the main street diverted through the service lanes on either side of the street. “These closures are unannounced and during peak hours, the traffic is terrible,” said Ahmed, who resides in Al Wakrah.
As the roads are closed, traffic on the service roads moves at a snail's pace. It has also resulted in traffic congestion on Al Wakrah road, extending at least up to the Barwa village traffic signal, which was also closed yesterday, unannounced.
Even after the opening of the G-Ring Road two days ago, there has been no respite from traffic on Al Wakra Road. Many motorists who spoke to The Peninsula complained that the road was not opened completely as announced by the Public Works Authority (Ashghal).
“The roads were opened on Saturday, and so we thought of using the road from airport to Messaimeer, instead of F-Ring road. However, we followed the new road and diversions only to find ourselves in front of Barwa signal. Usually, when new roads or diversions are made, the authorities publish a roadmap. This time they haven’t done it,” said Ravi, whose office is located in Messaimeer.
Adding to the congestion is the fact that some three or four lanes from the Airport converge into just two lanes when it reaches the newly opened exit on G-ring road to Al Wakrah.
Some of the motorists were taken by surprise when a key signal on Al Wakrah Road, near Barwa Village, was suddenly closed to traffic by Ashghal yesterday. Ashghal made no prior announcement of the closure of the signal which is always busy during peak hours.
“I had planned to go to Al Thumama from Al Wakrah. However, the Barwa signal was closed in the morning and hence I had to drive to the airport exit to go to F Ring Road to reach my destination. There was no announcement in the media or online about the changes in road lay-out,” said a female motorist.
"Today I saw the worst traffic jam in years. The signal near Barwa Village was closed and all traffic went directly on to the airport highway. Most of the motorists turning at the signal aim at F-Ring, and so the exit from airport highway to F-Ring was congested today," said a motorist who lives in Wukhair.
Some of the motorist are blaming poor planning in the opening of new roads that result in traffic diversion, creating more confusion. Added to this, a surplus of sign boards and other notices on either side of the roads divert driver’s attention, according to some.
Mean while, ongoing drainage and road works in the interior areas of Al Wakrah are also creating difficulties to motorists.
“Some drainage works are on-going at the roundabout and the Wukhair road in front of Al Wakrah Health Centre. Due to this, during peak hours, there is traffic congestion on the road leading to New Wakrah town. We see a number of motorists jumping the traffic congestion by taking a shortcut passing through the health centre compound to reach Wukhair Street. This at times creates problems for the patients visiting the health centre,” a worker at the health centre said.
Meanwhile, in Wukhair, traffic seems to go smoothly, despite mega-road and stadium works. However, the interior streets are dotted with potholes and recent rains had made the roads difficult to manoeuvre, according to some of the residents. “After the last rains, the roads had become pathetic, and in some areas, motorists, drove off-road. Some of the potholes have been closed, though bigger ones are stil there,” a Wukhair resident said.
The residents of Al Rayyan also lament about road closures and diversions due to ongoing development projects. “Closures, diversions and traffic jams have created troubles for commuters in Al Rayyan. It has become difficult to go outside. Whenever I think about going outside, I feel psychological discomfort," Mohamed from Al Rayyan said.
He said the good thing about all that trouble was the fact that after reconstruction works, roads would become wider with more lanes to accommodate more traffic. "But after one week or a month of opening of new road, they come to make some changes and diversions. The roads should not be opened until upgradation work is fully done. They must wait until they have finished the complete construction and then open it for commuters," he added.
"I can give some examples of diversions and closures like Bani Hajer signals, the area near Al Rayyan park and the area near Al Rayyan Municipality. And the traffic is usually stuck at Al Furousiya roundabout and Tilted Roundabout."
Another resident of Al Rayyan pointed out that the authorities used to start construction or upgradation work without prior announcement. "Due to unannounced closures and diversions, commuters have to travel on unfamiliar streets which creates a lot of trouble for them and also causes waste of time," he said, adding that the biggest problem was not only traffic jam and diversions but also the closure of passages of shops which someone wanted to visit.
Along with commuters, shop keepers are also facing problems due to the construction activity.
“Our situation is difficult now. For more than a month, our grocery store has no entrance passage, and no one can come to buy anything. The business has fallen by 70 percent. Now we are depending only on home delivery," said Fezan, a shop keeper in Al-Wakra.
He said that if the situation continued for a longer period, he would not be able to pay rent of his shop. "You can see our grocery shop is located on the main road and now we can’t even see the road due to the big wall and fence they have installed,” said shop owner.
The Peninsula has learnt that a number of companies do not coordinate with Traffic Safety and Engineering Department and they just come and start their work without any coordination with the authorities concerned, like not giving announcement for their work.
Earlier, Brigadier Mohammed Marafi, Director, Traffic Safety and Engineering Department, said that since January, over 130 companies have been referred to Public Prosecution for violating the safety rules related to construction of roads. Salem, a citizen from Al Rayyan, said that no person liked the jam and diversions but "we should understand that all these things are necessary as the number of vehicles has increased manifold in Qatar and many areas and roads need to be extended."
Qatar’s population reached over 2.6 million at the end of February 2017, with an annual increase of 5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a monthly report issued by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics.