That pesky Dubai Canal – it’s going to be amazing when it opens, but it’s been playing a bit of havoc with the traffic.

However the worst looks to be over, as the entire Jumeirah Beach Road bridge will be opened to motorists this month. The Abu-Dhabi-bound section of the Sheikh Zayed Road bridge also opened last week, meaning that Phase II of the Dubai Water Canal project is pretty much done and dusted.

You won’t be able to just drive across the six-lane Jumeirah bridge right away though – it’s going to be opening in three sections throughout July.

On Saturday 9, two lanes heading from Jumeirah 3 (south) to Jumeirah 2 (north) opened, while a further two lanes from Jumeirah 2 (north) towards Jumeirah 3 (south) will be unveiled on Friday 15.

The final two lanes will open the week after, meaning traffic will be able to fully flow in both directions from Thursday 21.

READ MORE
*Sheikh Zayed Road’s new bridge is finally open*
*Dubai Canal 80 per cent complete as new bridge opens*
*Al Wasl and Jumeirah Beach Roads will soon both be one way*

The bridge rises 8.5 metres over the soon-to-be-built waterway, giving plenty of room for boats and yachts to move freely underneath.

When finished, the Dubai Canal will run 3.2km from Business Bay up to the Arabian Gulf, and will flow through Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Wasl Road and Jumeirah Beach Road (hence all the bridges).

Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, said work on all bridges crossing the canal has now been completed.

The Al Wasl Road bridge opened last month, and is made up of three lanes in the Sharjah-bound direction and two lanes in the Abu Dhabi-bound direction. There are also two lanes serving the traffic coming from Al Wasl Road heading to Al Athar Road (which leads to Jumeirah Beach Road).

Around 50,000 cars a day now use the new Al Wasl Road Bridge, and it has eased traffic in Jumeirah 1 and Jumeirah 2 particularly.

The 800-metre-long Sheikh Zayed Road bridge partially opened in January with an eight-lane northbound section, and six of the eight southbound lanes were released to traffic earlier this month. The final two lanes are expected to open in mid-July.

As part phase II, a flyover from Al Aathar Road in the direction of Al Hadiqa Road across Al Wasl Road was also opened.

So what’s next?

The next phase of construction is the largest – at Dhs802 million – but the RTA says it’s already 75 per cent finished.

Phase III will focus on digging the waterway under the bridges, creating the canal walls, and building three footbridges and 10 marine transport stations.

Work will also include making a synthetic peninsula along the stretch of Jumeirah Park, “which would … make room for adding a host of recreational activities”, Al Tayer said.

 

In case you need a reminder of what all the work will create, here’s what the finished Dubai Canal will look like:

Dubai Canal - how it will look

dubai canal

Yeah, it’s definitely worth a bit of extra traffic while in the making.

– For more about Dubai straight to your newsfeed, follow us on Facebook.