Tuesday, May 29, 2007

The new Interchange 5

Traffic is getting to be a lot less of a problem around Dubai Marina - or at least at the Dubai end.
It's still chaos at the Jebel Ali end, with the new Interchange there in the early stages, the original completed roads completely dug up and the small local roads being used for all Dubai-Jebel Ali traffic coming out of the Marina.
There's a temporary mini roundabout between Belvedere & Waterfront buildings that everything including water tankers and labourers' buses have to try to negotiate.

Then it all gets into the mess that will eventually be the new Interchange.
When it's eventually open it will mean that the half of Dubai Marina's residents living at this end won't have to go right through the Marina to get in and out. It was a blindingly obvious fault in the original plan not to have this interchange, and of course it should have been built as part of the original infrastructure.
Instead of that, the roads were completed, including landscaping, only to be completely demolished to make way for the new roads. Tens of millions of dirhams, untold lost productivity with people stuck in jams, unnecessary road chaos, pollution and frustration.
Anyway, back to the good news - here's a great shot by Imre Solt posted on Skyscrapercity giving an overview of the huge new Interchange 5 as it was a couple of days ago.


We have new routes being opened on an almost daily basis. The signage is inevitably incomplete, confusing, downright misleading, but regular users are getting used to it. Visitors are still last-second lane changing or slowing almost to a stop trying to work it out, causing unnecessary danger and hold-ups.
There are now exits to Jebel Ali/Abu Dhabi, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Al Suffouh Road, Dubai & Al Quoz, Jumeirah and others to who-knows-where.
There's a loop back in from SZR when you're coming from Jebel Ali, others in from Al Quoz, JLT and Emirates Hills it seems, and in from Al Suffouh Road. I think there will be another link direct into Media City too, from what I can work out.
I drove around on Friday trying the different options and the ones that were open seem to work well. It obviously spreads the traffic load from Al Suffouh Road, that couldn't cope with it all.
A few photos from my Friday drive of what it's like at ground level...









2 comments:

Dubai Sunshine said...

It does help a lot...I usually take al Sufouh, but on the rare occasion that I leave the office early, it's a real nightmare....So now, whenever I leave before 7PM, I take the new interchange (now being called the spaghetti interchange), and it's a blessing! I'm home in 7 minutes!

Zhanna said...

This development is so important to Dubai that it is one of the city's landmarks. I have been there and love it and am doing all my best to own a flat there. It is amazing what Dubai can acheive. The value of Dubai property has risen cause of this masterpiece, definitely.
I love those pictures and I think its a great development, but the problem is, traffic ... Dubai should slow down a bit for its own sake.