This will ceate another major route across the three emirates
New plans have been announced to construct a 80km corridor running from Al Faya Road in Abu Dhabi to Al Shanouf Road in Sharjah.
The New Fourth Corridor, approved by Dubai authorities, will be built in two phases and is designed to make cross-emirate journeys smoother while taking pressure off some of the UAE’s busiest existing roads.
For Abu Dhabi residents, the key part is Phase Two, which will run for around 50km from Dubai-Al Ain Road to Al Faya Road in Abu Dhabi.
The new route will have 12 lanes across both directions and capacity for up to 24,000 vehicles per hour.
The journey along this section is expected to drop from around 50 minutes to 24 minutes, representing a 52 per cent reduction in travel time.
The phase is expected to serve around 3.1 million people, making it a significant addition to the road network for people travelling between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The first phase will cover approximately 30km from Al Shanouf Road in Sharjah to Dubai-Al Ain Road.
Costing around AED3.5 billion, it is also expected to reduce journey times on the section from 35 minutes to 14 minutes.
It will have capacity for up to 24,000 vehicles per hour in both directions and serve around 600,000 people.
So, while the project is being delivered through Dubai, it is very much a three-emirate connection.
Once complete, motorists will have a new corridor stretching from the Abu Dhabi side at Al Faya, through Dubai and onwards to Sharjah.
And it is a pretty serious piece of infrastructure. Across the two phases, the project will include 72 bridges, 17 tunnels and 45 stormwater drainage culverts.
The second phase alone will include around 190 lane-kilometres of surface roads, 3.5km of tunnels and 157km of bridges and ramps.
The route will also connect with major transport and development hubs, including Al Maktoum International Airport and the Etihad Rail route, while supporting logistics and commercial traffic.
One of the aims is to move through traffic, particularly trucks, away from urban areas and ease pressure on existing corridors.
For Abu Dhabi drivers, that could make the biggest difference when heading towards Dubai’s southern areas and beyond.
Rather than simply adding another route into Dubai, the project is designed as a wider cross-emirate corridor, giving traffic another way to move between Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.
