By Malak Monir

One third of the Education City’s road resurfacing project has already been completed, most noticeably the roads near the campus’ Green Spine, said Ahmad Alkhanji, a project engineer at Qatar Foundation’s capital projects directorate.

Alkhanji confirmed that the roads all across EC will eventually be resurfaced. He explained that the current roads have always been considered temporary, and the resurfacing is part of the master plan for EC.

“We have a natural stone theme with the buildings,” Alkhanji said, “We wanted the roads to match up with the buildings.”

The project involves also replacing the asphalt in the roads with basalt, which Alkhanji said is more environmentally friendly.

“Basalt is also more durable,” Alkhanji said, “Asphalt needs to be replaced in 25 years. Basalt can last up to 40 [years].”

In addition to the resurfacing the roads, Capital Projects has also made changes to the water and electrical infrastructure in EC. The infrastructure works will not always necessitate road closures, according to Alkhanji, and should not interfere with building functions.

The road resurfacing was the reason behind the closure of the Green Spine’s parking lot, which reopened last month after being closed since June 30, 2013 for the road repairs.

While every road in EC will eventually need to be closed for resurfacing, Capital Projects is taking into account university activity and campus events in timing those closures said Alkhanji, citing the example of Qatar’s National Sports Day, when some planned road closures were postponed so that events were not disrupted.