Oman's Batinah Expressway to be ready in 2017

Muscat: Commuting will become easier as the Batinah Expressway is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Dr. Ahmed Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communication, along with the undersecretary of transport, inspected the road project’s progress in Barka on Thursday morning and concluded that the project should be completed by the end of next year.
“We believe the project is going well and on schedule with some minor challenges being faced. The section from Barka to Al Hazm will be open by the end of the year,” said Al Futaisi about the 45-kilometre (km) road.
“We also expect that by the end of the year, the sixth package for the road project in Shinas will be completed. So by the end of this year we will have two packages ready for use. By the end of next year we expect that all the sectors will be complete and the road will be completely open for use,” he added.
He explained that the added benefit of having the road completed is to ease congestion on the current Sultan Qaboos Highway.
The Muscat-Barka section is part of Package 1 and is a 45-km road starting from the Al Filaij roundabout in Wilayat of Barka to Wilayat of Rustaq.
Package 2 covers a distance of 42 km between Wilayat of Rustaq and Wilayat of Suwaiq, while package 3 covers 46 km from Wilayat of Suwaiq to Wilayat of Saham.
Package 4 stretches 50 km from Wilayat of Saham to Wilayat of Sohar carrying on to package 5, which continues for another 41 km to Wilayat of Liwa.
Package 6, which is a 45 km stretch from the Wilayat of Liwa to Khatmat Milaha, includes 136 via ducts, two overpasses, four wadi crossing bridges and four intersections.