Heavy rains in Al Sheehaniya area and Dukhan Highway on Friday afternoon 11 September 2015 led to water overflowing at Interchange 42 on Dukhan Highway, also called Lebsayyer Interchange located about 5 km from Al Sheehaniya Interchange.
The Public Works Authority, Ashghal, has immediately taken the following necessary actions as per the approved emergency plan to deal with such cases:
- The Drainage Operations and Maintenance Department declared a level 1 state of alert on Friday 11 September at noon as soon as it learned about the expected rainfall. It notified all emergency personnel to begin implementing the rainy season preparedness plan (which comprise all drainage amenities in the state).
- At 2:54 pm, emergency teams were notified of water overflowing that disrupts traffic flow at the aforementioned interchange as a result of the heavy rainfall due to the thunderstorm in the area. The Drainage O&M department then escalated the situation to a level 2 state of alert and soon after to a level 3 state of alert.
- At around 4:30 pm, tankers were called in to pump away the water. Ashghal had also installed pumps to drain the water from the road. Managers from the Drainage O&M department and Roads Maintenance department as well as heads of the concerned departments in Ashghal were present on site to monitor the situation.
- The Police had closed the highway in both directions due to high water impeding traffic. A traffic diversion was also put in place to avoid the area where the accumulation of water took place until the road was reopened to traffic in the early hours of Saturday morning after draining the accumulated water.
The main reason behind the water overflow is the heavy and unprecedented rain that fell in a very brief period of time on this area. The video footage and site inspections on Friday afternoon showed the intensity of the rainfall, which exceeded the normal average.
Despite the presence of surface water drainage network on the road comprising several tanks and reservoirs to collect rainwater away from the highway, the network was unable to drain the water due to the large volumes of rain that fell on the road and surrounding area, which exceeded the network’s capacity and design criteria.
It is noteworthy that Dukhan Highway was completed and opened in 2008, and its surface water network was designed to accommodate the maximum volume of rainfall according to the adopted design standards. The rain storm that hit this area caused a heavy rainfall that exceeded the capacity of the road’s drainage network.
As per the common practice, in such rare heavy and localised rainfall cases which only occur few times throughout the decades, rapid intervention is carried out through emergency plans devised specifically for such cases.
The authority had completed the periodic maintenance works for the surface water drainage network in the region one week before the rainfall. As part of its plan and periodic programmes, Ashghal inspects the efficiency of the expressway drainage systems and ensures their readiness in the event of rainfall, in addition to carrying out maintenance works and periodic cleaning for all drainage networks in the state.
Ashghal offers its gratitude to all the entities that cooperated with the authority to face this emergency situation and swiftly deal with this incident, namely the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, both of which provided all the available means to respond to this emergency situation.