The current road linking Abu Dhabi and Dubai, E111 is said to be one of the most dangerous, which killed roughly 9 out of 100,000 people in 2012, but the new state of the art E311 highway will be one of the world’s greenest.
Just three years ago, when I started writing for Green Prophet, a project like this was virtually unheard of. While murmurings about clean technology, renewable energy and maybe even recycled materials had begun to emerge, there existed no supply chain of more earth-friendly materials to support any fledgling green initiatives. This I saw with my own eyes.
Now so much has changed, in large part thanks to government-sponsored Masdar (see photos of our trip to Masdar here), which among its many accomplishments established The Future Build, a brilliant platform that allows architects, designers, contractors and clients in the construction industry to source materials rated to the highest environmental specifications.
This in turn encourages suppliers to improve the quality of their product and enables Abu Dhabi to push their widespread “greening” initiatives even further.
The emirate’s Department of Transportation (DoT) has teamed up with the the Urban Planning Council (UPC), the Estidama program team and the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, along with an international consortium of road planning experts, to design and plan a new green road to link the UAE capital and Dubai.
(Related post: Abu Dhabi: biggest polluter turned green police)
Devised as a template for future roads, the new highway will be constructed with state of the art materials designed for optimum safety and security, including recycled materials such as asphalt and aggregate and rubber tires, and it will require less maintenance in the long run.
Part of the DoT’s Surface Transport Master Plan, the E311 will also be illuminated with renewable energy such as solar power, in order to reduce the project’s overall carbon footprint.
“The DoT has undertaken several studies to guarantee that the best possible approaches are being utilised ensuring that the project will bring the defined objectives,” according to local paper Emirates 24/7, “one of which is building modern and environment-friendly roads as opposed to the traditional ones.”
Construction on the pilot road will being in early 2015.
Image of Dubai/Abu Dhabi road sign / Shutterstock
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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