Motorists in Jumeirah Lakes Towers face gridlock for second day

Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority said teams are 'exerting every effort' to restore traffic to normal

Motorists in JLT face heavy traffic delays for the second day in a row due to repair works. Courtesy:RTA

Frustrated Dubai motorists experienced heavy traffic delays for a second day as emergency repair works continued in Jumeirah Lakes Towers on Sunday.

Commuters reported tailbacks from as early as 7.30am and congestion remained in the area until after 10.30am.

The Roads and Transport Authority said emergency maintenance work was needed after an underground water pipe line burst.

“As per protocol RTAs team was onsite to assist with traffic diversions,” it said. The usual four lanes were reduced to one on Saturday, with a second lane opened on Sunday morning to accommodate commuters during rush hour.

At 1pm the RTA tweeted photos of maintenance workers paving the street, saying they were working as quickly as possible to restore traffic to normal.

“We are hopeful of completion of the works and opening of the lanes by early [Monday] morning,” the RTA said.

The road works were carried out near clusters V to Y of the heavily populated neighbourhood.

With a number of office towers located in the area, many commuters were unable to avoid the hold ups and several aired their frustrations on Twitter.

Just after 9am, @PervezSana wrote: “Stuck in the crazy @JLT_residents traffic. Unfortunately couldn’t avoid as office is here. Currently stuck since the last 15 minutes in front of cluster S. What’s happening here?”

While @_isolatedsystem wrote: “If you're stuck in traffic and are wondering why, it's because the road is 'broken'. Cops have blocked the road and you have to wait for at least an hour.

“Either exit to SZR, park on the other side of the road or deal with [the traffic].”

Traffic eased by late morning but congestion picked up again by early afternoon along the ring road from cluster O to V, leading past Damac metro station.