Phase two of Salam open today

New surface roads on Salam Street will open to traffic on Friday.

ABU DHABI //Another section of Salam Street surface roads will open to traffic today as part of the municipality's Dh5 billion redevelopment project.

The road between the junctions of Khalifa and Hamdan streets will open to outbound traffic.

A second section, from the junction of Hamdan to the junction opposite Al Diar Capital Hotel, will be open to traffic travelling to the Corniche.

But the municipality is closing the road from Khalifa Street towards the Corniche Hospital.

The redevelopment is expected to be fully completed in the first quarter of next year. The first phase, a 2-km stretch between Hamdan and Al Falah streets, opened in September.

The project was initially expected to be finished in October last year but that date was put back to last July, then to next year.

The redevelopment project is now in the last, and most expensive, of its four phases.

Works, including construction along two branches from Hamdan Street that divert to Mina Zayed and the Corniche, should be completed by the end of the year.

Construction on the 3.1km tunnel will be the last stage to be finished. The tunnel needs to be connected to a smaller underground stretch under Defence Road.

When completed, vehicles will be able to travel from Sheikh Zayed Bridge to Mina Zayed without encountering traffic signals.