Lusail Expressway

Lusail Expressway is one of the largest road projects to be developed as part of Qatar’s seven-year Expressway Programme. Initiated in 2010 to connect people and places across the city, the Expressway Programme consists of 30 new road developments, upgrades, and improvements including underpasses, flyovers and multi-level interchanges to provide the city with fast, modern connectivity.

The Lusail Expressway is one of the biggest to be developed, with 5.3 km of four-lane highway in both directions, including 2 major cut and cover tunnels, two cofferdams to cross the West Bay Lagoon and three major interchanges; the Al Wahda Interchange, Onaiza Interchange, and the Pearl Interchange.

The Expressway also has two service lanes in the multi-level interchange areas, and includes a complex network of tunnels, flyovers and junctions in order to meet the future traffic demands by providing easy and speedy connectivity.

Dewatering of the project proved a challenge, as unforeseen and unexpected cavities in the limestone were encountered and the consequential flows into the site along fissures and fractures peaked at 3,000l/sec – a record for a WJ dewatering project. However, WJ rose to the challenge and dewatering was achieved with a deepwell system and supplemented with sump pumping. WJ had to rapidly install a network of hdpe pipes, some 1 m in diameter, to collect the pumped water along the length of the structure on both sides and discharge it out to the Persian Gulf. We made sure that the discharge met strict environmental standards at all times – the discharge point was overlooked by 5 star hotels and Royal family palaces!

When the construction phase was complete, WJ continued to provide pumping services for maintenance purposes and with emergency flood control pumps during the rainy season.

WJ’s perseverance in challenging conditions, and our collaboration with the contractor, South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Construction (HDEC), led to our selection as the dewatering contractor for HDEC’s Al Zour project in Kuwait.