Fines for heavy trucks entering Doha without permission

No heavy trucks will be allowed to enter Doha from December 15 without the traffic police's permission after a temporary bypass road dedicated to them was opened yesterday.

All trucks will use a Temporary Truck Route (TTR) on the Salwa — Lusail road stretching 41km, which was opened by Public Works Authority yesterday.

Brig Mohammed AbdulRahman Marafia, Director of Traffic and Road Safety, said an awareness campaign has been launched to keep heavy trucks outside the city and reduce traffic congestion.

Traffic patrols will book trucks entering Doha without permission from the traffic department. The fine for the violation is QR500.

The new TTR has been launched to improve the traffic flow in Doha and divert incoming transit traffic between the north and south of the country out of the city. The announcements were made at a press meet at Ashghal headquarters yesterday after which media persons were shown the new road.

The TTR connects Salwa Road west of the Industrial Area with Lusail Development. The TTR also merges with the 23km Salwa — Mesaieed (Route 55) that opened last year, forming a temporary rural road stretching 64km west of Doha city to reduce traffic congestion between Mesaieed in the south and Lusail in the north.

The new road will also reduce traffic flow to and from Al Khor, Al Shamal, and Dukhan passing through the Industrial Area, Mesaieed and the south. This will dramatically ease congestion on Doha's main streets that served as a main route for heavy vehicles and trucks, he said.

"The TTR is one of the most important projects executed by the authority's Road Projects Department to reduce traffic congestion by diverting transit traffic out of Doha until the completion of the Orbital Express way and Truck Road, which is expected to be complete in 2017," he said.

The Salwa-Lusail TTR consists of a two-lane road in each direction separated by a median. It starts from Lusail Development passing through Al Khor highway via a new prefabricated steel bridge.

The TTR crosses Al Mazrooah Bridge (bridge number 16) and stretches from Al Shamal Road to Dukhan alongside the backside of Umm Salal and Al Rufaa Street.

It then intersects with Dukhan Road via a second prefabricated steel bridge that has been developed to ensure the traffic flow.

The TTR then extends until it intersects with Salwa Road crossing the existing bridge and connecting with the Salwa-Mesaieed (Route 55) that leads to Mesaieed and the South..

Trucks won't be allowed to overtake on the two-lane roads. [The Peninsula]