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With the completion of the Corniche project in which the Corniche’s roundabouts were converted to signalized intersections in a record time, and stemming from its commitment to honor the efforts exerted by the project’s team including: officials, engineers and construction companies, the Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’ organized an honorary ceremony in presence of Ashghal’s President Eng. Nasser bin Ali Al Mawlawi, a number of Ashghal’s officials and representatives of the traffic department at the ministry of Interior and Lekhwiya, the gardens department at the Ministry of Municipality and Urban planning, Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation Kahramaa, and the team of engineers and supervisors who worked on the Corniche project, as well as representatives and workers from the companies that executed the project, and a crowd of media and local press.
H.E. Eng. Nasser bin Ali Al Mawlawi gave a speech expressing his pride and appreciation for this qualitative achievement, and praising the great efforts exerted by ‘Ashghal’ team, the engineers and workers of the construction companies, and everyone who worked on this project as they worked around the clock to complete the project to the fullest in a record time.
H.E. thanked the officials of the ministry of interior for the great support they offered throughout the project days, especially the traffic department and Lekhwiya who worked hard to keep the traffic flow without hindering the execution of the project, and ease the impact of traffic diversions on commuters, praising the collaboration of the officials from the Ministry of Municipality and Urban planning and Kahramaa who played a major role in the timely achievement.
H.E. Eng. Nasser bin Ali Al Mawlawi noted that “the Corniche project proved on the ground our capability to achieve when we set clear goals and concert our efforts, this achievement wouldn’t have been done without the concerted efforts of Ashghal team and the executing companies, those who worked in a crucial time round the clock during the summer season to complete the project in full. This would haven’t been achieved either without the continuous support of the Ministry of interior and Lekhwiya, the Ministry of Municipality and Urban planning and Kahramaa. And today we are expressing our gratitude, not only to those who led this work, but to all those who contributed to achieving it, engineers, supervisors and workers, by rewarding them materially and morally”.
During this ceremony, special certificates of appreciation and commemorative shields were awarded to the following entities:
1- Traffic department – Ministry of Interior
2- Traffic planning and safety section – Ministry of Interior
3- Convoys and patrols directorate – Lekhwiya
4- The Public gardens directorate – Ministry of Municipality and Urban planning
5- Network Affairs - Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation Kahramaa
Then rewards and gifts were distributed to representatives, engineers and workers of the companies that executed the Corniche project, namely:
1- Bin Omran Company
2- Jaber and Makhlouf Company
3- Qatari construction company
4- Traffic Tech
5- ANAS
The Corniche project has achieved a qualitative leap in smoothing the flow of traffic on the Corniche comparing to the situation in the past. Key features of the new Corniche intersections include: an increase in the number of safe pedestrian crossings, and provision of wheel chair access ramps for people with special needs, traffic signals equipped with wheel chair ramps and pedestrian traffic lights to ensure safety for all road users, and a number of extra lanes at the intersections to ease the U-turns and left-turns without affecting the traffic flow.
Moreover, 24 new traffic lights were added to the side roads (way-in and way-out), at the new intersections, to increase the safety of pedestrians and reduce injuries. After completing thorough evaluations using field data, supervising real time, and optimizing on signal timings to improve traffic mobility, all the Corniche traffic lights were calibrated to be controlled by Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) that react to the volume of traffic creating the so-called ‘green-wave.’ This maximizes the number of green lights ahead of heavy traffic, and creates a smoother traffic flow and less congestion. The benefits of this traffic system are that it will make traffic flow from and to the Corniche area much smoother than before, reduce journey times, increase safety of road users, and minimize the need to slow down and stop at every intersection as was the case with the roundabouts.
Revitalising the bustling Corniche Street, the beautification works on the intersections included the installation of new decorative hard landscaping along the medians, sidewalks and pedestrian crossing areas. The pedestrian crossings are being embellished with coloured anti-skid reflective surface using high performance safe and durable material.
It is worth mentioning that the roundabouts that were converted into signalized-intersections include: Lodaihy (Oryx), Lejbailat, Onaiza, Museum of Islamic Art, Diwan, the National Theatre, Wadi Al Sail, and Qatar Post roundabouts; in addition to the Grand Hamad Street and Al-Mina intersections. The works on the Corniche project, began in July to take advantage of the summer vacation time and the lighter traffic.