WSP was commissioned by PART under agreement EF/R/220 to carryout traffic analysis and prepare concept design, preliminary design, final detailed design and tender documents to upgrade the roads network within the Governmental zone at South Surra Area (SSA) surrounding Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah Hospital in order to accommodate the predicted future traffic demand and increase the traffic safety in this area. The objective of this project is to provide free flow accesses from major highway network to the hospital along major street network inside South Surra area and accordingly make necessary improvements along these streets by introducing interchanges (depressed roads/troughs, bridges and flyovers) and signalized intersections in most critical locations.
The total length of roadways to be improved is approximately 20 Kilometres. Improvements include: modifications to the existing configurations of interchanges, addition of lanes, depressed roadways, grade separated intersections, improvement to signalized intersections and roundabouts. The project also included preparing an inventory of existing utilities in the project areas and the preparation of diversion plans of these utilities taking into account future plans of service ministries. Bus routes and pedestrian bridges will be identified and service roads will be utilized for buses wherever feasible.
The upgrade recommendations are packaged into three Construction Contracts: Contract RA/256 (Sections of Sixth Ring Road and King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Road); Contracts: RA/257 (Sections of South Surra Area Roadways including Segments of Damascus Street, Fifth Ring Road and King Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz Road) and RA/258 (Segments of Fifth Ring Road and King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Road).
Key aspects of the project are summarized below:
Data Collection Program
• A detailed topographical survey of sufficient width has been undertaken for the project roadway corridors. This detailed survey has been utilized to create the Digital Terrain Modal (DTM) for the development of the Final Design.
• A variety of traffic data has been collected for this study including Traffic Count Surveys, Road Inventory Surveys, Travel Time Surveys, Pedestrian Surveys, Truck Route Surveys, Planning data from relevant public authorities; and Public Transit Bus Routes.
• The project also included preparing an inventory of existing utilities in the project areas and the preparation of diversion plans of these utilities taking into account future plans of service ministries.
• A comprehensive Geotechnical Investigations was performed that included a preliminary subsurface investigation program consisting of eleven (11) borings, the provision of full-time inspection of the subsurface investigation program and the preparation of field logs.
Review of Existing Traffic Conditions
Extensive site reconnaissance surveys were conducted to gather information on existing traffic conditions within the vicinity of the study area and to assess the physical characteristics and conditions of all major roads for physical constraints, bottlenecks and potential capacity details at key junctions. The base year has been taken as the year 2012.
Detailed capacity analyses were conducted at the key signalized intersections, roundabouts, interchanges and freeway segments using the analytical procedures described in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2010.
Forecast Traffic Model
A comprehensive travel demand forecasting model was developed as part of this study to forecast year 2030 to evaluate the operational performance of highway concepts developed for project corridors. The outputs from 2030 no-build sub-area traffic model were used to identify the future problems and to develop the highway alternatives for South Surra Area. Three time periods were modelled in the forecast year; weekday morning (AM) peak, weekday afternoon (AN) peak and weekend evening (PM) peak. These traffic models were utilized to evaluate the alternatives highway concepts that were developed as part of the project.
Options Development
The development of roadway improvement concepts were centered on enhancing free flow access to the Jaber Al Ahmed Hospital and the Ministry Area. As a part of this focus, access to area freeways was considered, as well as significant operational issues along the surrounding freeway corridors. Three Concept alternatives have been developed for each interchange location. The alternatives presented were strategic in nature, and not only address existing and projected future traffic volume demands (Year 2030), but additionally lay a strategy for managing hospital traffic and ministry-bound traffic.
Options Assessment
In order to select the preferred alternative among the three access alternatives, an evaluation criteria was adopted to enable decision makers to highlight advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.
The evaluation considered several aspects including hospital access, physical feasibility, traffic operation, traffic safety and impact on residential areas.
Relocation and Diversion of Utilities
Existing utilities diversion, relocation and protection plans have been developed for all the utilities that are affected by the design of South Surra Area Roadway project.
Temporary Traffic Management during Construction
The traffic management plan demonstrates that it is possible to upgrade corridors within South Surra Area without the traffic becoming seriously congested by developing sequential construction phasing based on construction site experience. The phasing depicts various scenarios including cross over, construction of temporary detour roads, utilization of existing roadways wherever possible and others.
Key deliverables
• Concept Design
• Preliminary Design
• Final Detailed Design
• Tender Documents
• Environmental Impact Assessment
