Awhile back I was talking to my friends dad who’s been in Kuwait working on the local infrastructure since the 60s and he told me that when the First Ring Road was originally conceived it was meant to be a loop. I don’t remember the exact conversation but they ran into issues (I think a politician didn’t want a bridge overlooking his property or something along those lines) and the project never got completed. Now the project is back on track and those of you who work in the city have probably noticed a lot of road closures. Last week the road from Dasman roundabout to the First Ring Road was shutdown and dug up and yesterday the Dasman roundabout itself was dissected (pictured below) so construction can start there as well.
I’m going to try and get official pictures of the project but once construction is completed it should look something similar to my drawing on top. I’m guessing as well that once the project is completed you should be able to loop the First Ring Road without stopping at any traffic light so I’m curious to see how they’re planning to connect the current end of the First Ring Road which ends at Souk Mubarakia to the new extension which starts near the Grand Mosque and Kuwait Stock Exchange. I checked the Projects Explorer on the Ministry of Public Works website and according to the information I found there, once this project is completed there will be a total of 5 bridges connecting the current end of the First Ring Road to the start of the First Ring Road. I couldn’t find a completion date nor could I find renderings of how the project will look like also once completed but I’m trying to get my hands on them.
If you have any renderings or more information please share it.
16 replies on “First Ring Road – An Infinite Loop”
Although a brillint idea back when it was thought of, it doesn’t necessarily make it work in the 2000s. Many cities with a highway looping or dissecting the city realised that the highway increased traffic as population increased (example-elephant and castle in London).
Now onto the metro: The Metro map shows that in some instances the rail runs under what would have been a normal grade road and not a depressed highway. How low below the first ring road will THAT rail now run especially since the project is not too far from the sea and the water level is quite high around sharq.
What they need to do is have representatives of different ministries just sit together and work out a construction plan. Now that the first ring road is under construction it would have made more sense to have ministry of information lay the fiber optics at the same time (saves time and money on overall project).
Mark, for every troll you encounter who acuses you of anti-Kuwait posts and suggests anyone unhappy with something in Kuwait should GTFO, you should show them the infinite posts like THIS one for which you take tremendous interest and trouble!
Bravo, thank you.
thank you, that made my day!
Haha I just realized your awesome drawing on the map looks like a giant smooch 🙂
hahaha! cannot unsee it now!! 😀
That explains why its called a ring road, but why are all the others? They are not rings!
Being a subcontractor on this project, I can tell you that the mubarakiya section will be the most difficult phase and is planned to happen at the end of the project.
Dasman / KIA / Mubarakiya will all be the sites of 3 underpasses and as such bridges to counteract. So you’ll have your 3 new bridges and the existing 1 from qibla and 1 from 40 1 for the 50 and 1 for the 30 and 1 for the 35
Total bridges/underpass combos will be 8.
Thanks for the information, do you have any renderings for the project? I’m curious to see how the mubarakia section will look like. Also how long is the project expected to take?
Great post
Mark do you have any iinformation/update about the bidaa roundabout?
Nope nothing, I’ll see if I can dig up anything
You actually drew the upper half of the circle on ahmad al jaber road, not the abdullah al ahmad road. The project will develop the abdullah al ahmad road, the one with the grand mosque.
yeah, my mistake, just updated the route
coming soon, inshallah in the year 3069. that bridge on the first ring rd near the hospitals has been in construction for the past 35 years at least lol good luck with this.
They’re also building a bridge at al bedaa roundabout, the renderings are shown there at the entrance of the construction site
I believe this is the same project:
https://www.newkuwaitgov.com/project.php?post_id=124
yes it is thanks