Expansion programme set to make dangerous Dubai-Al Ain highway safer

Road rated fourth on Dubai's most-hazardous list gets facelift, Abu Dhabi-Al Ain section as well.

DUBAI // The drive to and from Al Ain will soon become safer with construction works to expand the E-66 highway, which motorists will help reduce the number of accidents on Dubai’s fourth-most-dangerous road.

The roadworks include increasing the number of lanes in each direction to four and are set to end in September. The thoroughfare accounts for 3.6 per cent of injuries and 4.6 per cent of deaths on the police list for last year.

Motorists driving from Dubai will see that the highway is like most others. It is well lit and includes a service lane and numerous speed cameras. Despite that, Dubai police say it accounted for 36 serious accidents between 55 vehicles in 2010, leading to 29 injuries and seven fatalities. Some drivers said it was a major test of their nerves.

“It’s a harrowing drive,” said Elaine Jones, 49, an American who works as a home-care nurse in Al Ain and lives in Dubai. “People speed by like madmen. I’m constantly tailgated and bullied by bigger cars.”

The Abu Dhabi side of the highway, 53 kilometers from Al Ain, is even more nightmarish as the road suddenly narrows to two lanes where construction is still ongoing. There is no service lane, leaving those whose vehicle has broken down at the mercy of oncoming traffic and those with large vehicles barely squeezing past lorries that often don’t, or can’t, stay in their lane.

“That’s the most dangerous thing about the highway,” said Mustafa Haleem, 41, an Egyptian agricultural engineer. “It’s the big trucks that can’t fit in their lane. I worry that my car will be sideswiped by a truck driver. I’ve had a few close calls.”

Construction on the highway began in 2008 at a cost of Dh780 million to meet the projected social and economic development of Al Ain. Since construction began, a number of bridges and tunnels are being built as part of the expansion. Motorists have been finding the route changing on a weekly basis with numerous diversions.

Before construction began, the speed limit was 120kph with speed cameras set at 140kph. They were cut to 100kph and the cameras reset to 120kph after construction was underway. With the ongoing roadworks a number of speed cameras have been removed and not replaced. Drivers have been observed travelling at speeds over 160kph on those stretches.

Al Ain Traffic Police said that mobile cameras have been deployed in areas where the fixed cameras have been removed to slow more adventurous drivers.

"We have clocked drivers reaching speeds of over 170kph," a police spokesman said. "As construction comes to an end the cameras that were removed will be returned and more will be added. Drivers get to know where the stationary cameras are and speed up between them. The continued use of the mobile cameras will help us catch those drivers."

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