Dubai Water Canal Overview
Dubai Water Canal was constructed between 2013 and 2017 at a cost of Dh2 billion in the Jumeirah area of Dubai. The 3.2-kilometre canal connects Dubai Creek to the sea via Business Bay, effectively turning Bur Dubai, Jumeirah 1 and Downtown Dubai into an island.
Part of the canal runs through Safa Park, separating Al Wasl from Al Safa, and continues to the sea between the Jumeirah 2 and Jumeirah 3 districts.
The Dubai Water Canal development was undertaken by Meraas and Meydan, both government owned developers. In addition to the canal the surrounding areas are being redeveloped with various residential, hospitality and leisure projects.
Dubai Gate Tower
The entrance to the canal from the sea will be bridged by the Dubai Gate Tower, a pair of skyscrapers on either side of the canal connected at the top by a sky bridge. It will contain a mix of residential apartments and hotel suites.
Safa Park Redevelopment
Safa Park will have additional residential projects - low-rise buildings on the Al Wasl side and high-rise buildings on both the Sheikh Zayed Road and Jumeirah Beach sides.
Construction History
The canal opened on 9th November 2016 after three years’ of excavation and construction.
In July 2016 the third road bridge over the Canal, the Jumeirah Bridge, was opened as part of Phase II of the project. The bridge carries three lanes in each direction and clears the Canal by 8.5 metres to allow shipping to navigate the waters around the clock.
Two other road bridges spanning the Canal were opened earlier in the year. The 800-metre southern bridge on Sheikh Zayed Road from Dubai to Abu Dhabi carries eight lanes in each direction, and the Al Wasl Bridge carries five lanes, three in the direction of Dubai, and two in the direction of Abu Dhabi.
Foot bridges have been built at different locations, including a suspension bridge with a huge arch built about the canal.
As of August 2016 work was progressing on Phase IV and V of the project. The contract for Phase IV, which is part of the infrastructure for serving urban developments on both sides of the Canal, includes roads and utilities.
The contract for Phase V includes completing the quay walls using precast concrete slabs all along the stretch of the Canal. Works also include the treatment of hyper-saline water in the Business Bay Lakes, removing sand barriers from the course of the Canal, and constructing three marine transport stations on both sides of the Canal.
Here are some construction statistics according to the Dubai RTA:
- 150,000 tons of cement used
- 4,650 workers
- 20 million hours worked
- 25,000 tons of reinforcement steel used
- 7,800 million litres of water held in the canal
- 80-120 metres canal width
- 5 pedestrian bridges
- 5 marine transport stations (Sheikh Zayed Road, Safa Park, Al Wasl, Jumeirah and Dubai Canal)
- 3.2km canal length
- 3 road bridges
- 3 million square metres of sand extracted
The entire project is due for completion by 2020.
Dubai Water Canal in the News
Construction Business News, 8th Dec 2016
Nearby Attractions
Public Transport
The Dubai Water Canal will eventually have 18 marine stations, enabling people to travel along the waterway from Deira and Bur Dubai to Jumeirah. Five of these stations are located along the canal and another seven are at Business Bay.
More than six million passengers are expected to be carried each year around the canal and man-made islands off the coast.
Dubai Water Canal History
The first phase of the Dubai Canal, a 9km extension of the Dubai Creek from Ras Al Khor through Business Bay to Sheikh Zayed Road, was launched in January 2005 and completed at the end of 2007.
The final 6km stretch of the canal was put on hold owing to the global financial crisis of 2008-9 and not begun until 2014. It was inaugurated in November2016.
The majority of the work on the new portion of the canal was undertaken by Belgian contractor BESIX, through its local venture Belhasa Six Construct, in two main packages of work. The first involved diverting all the underground utilities and carrying out canal excavation while three road bridges over the canal crossings, Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Wasl Road and Jumeirah Beach Road, werebeing completed.
The second package involved treating the water in Business Bay, which had become stagnant and over salinated since 2007, before releasing it safely back into the sea. The over salinated water was pumped from the Business Bay lagoon to a mixing basin near a newly created peninsula at Jumeirah where it was blended with seawater to reduce the salinity before being discharged into the sea. This process took two months plus another month to pump normal seawater back into the lagoon.
The road bridges were completed between April and July 2016 allowing the land below the bridges to be excavated before the canal was finally connected to the sea.
The quay walls were made using precast concrete blocks weighing 40 to 50 tonnes each. Every night during the construction period 30 to 50 blocks at a time were made in a special facility in Warsan.
There is a ten metre wide promenade either side of the canal beyond which the land can be safely excavated for construction of buildings alongside the canal.
The three pedestrian bridges and the canal promenades were constructed during the six months before the canal was inaugurated.
The Dubai Canal is 3.2 km long, 80m to 120m wide and 4m deep. There are three road bridges and three pedestrian bridges crossing it. At Jumeirah, 250,000 sq m of land has been reclaimed from the sea, on which an 800m new beach has been created. The project involved 2.8 million cubic metres of excavation, and the production of 9,400 concrete blocks.
Masterplan
Design Stage
Dubai Water Canal Communities
We currently maintain records for 3 sub-communities in Dubai Water Canal.
Dubai Water Canal Buildings
We currently maintain records for 6 building developments in Dubai Water Canal.
View all Dubai Water Canal building developments.
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