Ministry of Municipality & Urban Planning

Urban Planning & Development Sector

March 2010

Guidelines for the application of the new

typical road cross - sections and utilities
corridors

Guidelines for the application of the new typical road cross - sections and utilities corridors

Synopsis
The content of this document shall be considered as draft guidelines for the application,
limitation, technical consideration and implementation procedures of the proposed typical
road cross sections and utilities corridors. It has been prepared by the Transportation and
Infrastructure Planning Department of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning
(MMUP), and shall be considered as an integral part of the typical road cross - sections and
utilities corridors proposal.
This document will be issued to all stakeholders for their records and necessary action.
Stakeholders are very welcome to add additional information or comments that may be
necessary to be included. If stakeholders made no comments within two weeks of receiving
the documents, then this document will be considered as true and correct record.
Additional related information are to be found in the attached Appendices I, II & III

1. Introduction:
The Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning (MMUP), in close collaboration with all
relevant stakeholders (Public Works Authority (PWA), Kahramaa (KM), Q-tel, ictQatar, Qatar
Armed force, and Civil Defense), has developed new typical road cross - sections and
realigned the utilities corridors (Appendix I) to meet the modern technical and safety
requirements and to fulfill the actual demands on roads and utilities.
This was due to the fact that the current typical road cross-sections within the existing Qatar
Highway Design Manual (QHDM) do not meet the future demands in terms of utilities
services and are not consistent with technical and safety standards adopted. The new
proposed typical road cross sections in Urban areas cover the road sections with R.O.W
ranging from 10m to 64m. In Rural areas it covers the road sections with R.O.W of 40m and
64m.
The proposal covers also at Grade and underpass cross sections of major road intersection
of 64 and 86m R.O.W. Roads cross sections with R.O.W's greater than 100m (i.e.
Freeways) and R.O.Ws that include at-grade LRT or Tramways are not included in this
document. The design of utilities for such roadways will be handled on project specific bases.
For these road sections (i.e. R.O.W > 100m) no utility services shall be allocated under the
carriageways. "Appendix I" includes the above mentioned cross sections and the minutes of
meeting which was held for the development of the above mentioned proposal.

To meet the current demands on the utility services, the following utility corridors were added
to the newly proposed typical cross sections:
1. Drainage Corridors
2. Sewerage Forcing Mains (SFM)
3. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)
4. Doha Street Surveillance System (DSSS)
5. Qatar Armed Force Cables (QAF)
6. Gas pipe lines
7. Chilled Water lines (CW)
8. Solid Disposal System (SDS)
9. Fiber Optics Cables (FOC)

Ministry of Municipality & Urban Planning

/ Urban Planning & Development Sector /H.Q.

Guidelines for the application of the new typical road cross - sections and utilities corridors

The following description would list some application limitations and some technical
requirements. It also outlines the implementation procedures and the next steps to be
undertaken.

2. Applications and limitations

Under this section, the possible application of the new typical cross sections is highlighted.
Some application's limitations are briefly introduced.
1. The proposed typical cross sections covers most of the road types as per the
Transportation Master Plan of Qatar (TMPQ) and shall be directly applied to all New
Roads and to all roads within new subdivisions.
2. The new road cross-sections shall also be applied to roads with temporary status
which will be upgraded to permanent road status.
3. For future improvements, maintenance and redesign of existing roads, the new cross
sections including the utility corridors shall be considered as a guideline to be
compared with. In case of relocation of any existing utility, a written request shall be
submitted to the utility provider and to the MMUP for approval.
4. Transition Period; for current projects, projects which are at advanced design stage
and/or at the construction tendering process shall be finalized as per the QHDM or as
agreed with the relevant authorities. A request shall be submitted to the MMUP for
review and approval.
5. Special road cross sections with realigned utility corridors at intersections have been
developed i.e. at-Grade and underpass cross-sections for 64m and 86m R.O.W.
These special cases will be adopted and adjusted as required to fit any specific
circumstances or requirements. Currently these sections are in the approval process
6. The concept of a Utility Gallery was introduced for the 64m and 86m R.O.W and at
major intersections. Dimensions and other details of the utility galleries are to be
further studied. The Galleries shall meet the utility demands and site specific
conditions.
7. The concept of utility gallery should be used if all other options were found unfeasible
and it shall be restricted to a short distance i.e. 100m to 500m. However, for sections
longer than 500m, a special case study shall be prepared and submitted by the
relevant stakeholder (applicant) to MMUP for approval.
8. Deviation from the proposed typical road cross sections must be justified. The
applicant must submit to the relevant authority (MMUP, PWA or utility providers) a
request to deviate from the proposed cross sections along with all necessary proof to
justify the deviation. Final approval from MMUP is required.

3. Technical considerations and constraints

Additional utility corridors were added to the existing cross sections; the adaptation of these
new corridors impacts other utilities and poses some technical constraints. Therefore, more
coordination between utility providers is required.
1. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) cables were added to the proposed crosssections. These cables are to be laid in ducts within the electrical lighting (EL) corridor
in all types of road cross sections. Most of these cables will be located under the road
Ministry of Municipality & Urban Planning

/ Urban Planning & Development Sector /H.Q.

Guidelines for the application of the new typical road cross - sections and utilities corridors

verge or under the footpaths on both sides of the road. The dimension of the duct
bank will be approx. 1m in width and about 0.6 m in depth, and shall consist of two
rows of 100 mm diameter empty ducts. ITS chambers shall be placed every 100m
and at intersections. Manhole and cross road ducts shall be placed every 500 m and
at intersections.
2. Where the ITS cables are to be located in the road median, they will be laid together
with the Electrical Lighting cables (EL) and Doha Street Surveillance system (DSSS)
cables in a common duct bank. The dimension of the duct bank will be approx. 1.2 m
in width and about 0.6 m in depth and shall consist of two rows of 100 mm diameter
pipes (ducts).
3. Doha Street Surveillance System (DSSS) manhole shall be placed every 250 m. For
technical details refer to the attached documents "Details for Civil Works" provided by
Doha Street Surveillance System project in appendix II.
4. All telecommunication cables, including fiber optic cables, will be accommodated
within the designated telecommunication corridors. On the cross section, the corridors
are marked with the letter "T". The cables will be accommodated in a duct bank. The
distribution of the ducts among telecommunication providers as well as all technical
details will be provided by ictQatar. An independent corridor of 0.5m located at both
sides of the roads is reserved for Qatar Armed Force (QAF). This corridor is assigned
to QAF use only.
5. The identified standard R.O.W's (as per Policy Plan) were used for the allocation of
the utility corridors. Ideally; most of utility services are accommodated within the given
R.O.W outside the carriageways. In some cases the width of corridors assigned for a
specific utility cannot cater for all of the required utility services. Therefore some utility
corridors have to be located under the carriageways, such cases are limited. Service
providers shall provide an accepted technical solution for the alignment and
construction methods. These cases shall be submitted to MMUP for consideration,
coordination with other stakeholders and approval.
6. Based on discussion with the technical team of Ashgahl (PWA), drainage, sewerage
and treated sewerage effluent (TES) corridors were grouped together to account for
maximum flexibility in assigning the required width to the specific corridor. Sewer and
drainage corridors are located under the carriageway. These services will normally be
laid deep under the road surface (Micro Tunnel) and mostly will not be affected by the
traffic loads, provided that proper construction methods are adopted
7. Positive drainage system, using pipes and culverts shall be constructed where
possible under carriageways. Where positive drainage system are not feasible,
retention areas should be set aside to store surface water runoff until the water has
soaked into the ground, these areas are known as infiltration basins. Special land
shall be designated as infiltration basins. Public Parks can be also used as infiltration
basins or emergency flood areas.
8. Soakaways are not to be recommended. They should only be used as a last option to
positive drainage system or retention areas (infiltration basins). Soakaway shall be
appropriately designed taking into consideration all other utilities. This design shall
be approved by PWA and MMUP.
9. For existing roads where the available R.O.W is insufficient to fulfill the utility
requirements and the acquisition of additional land is not possible, then a Utility
Gallery concept can be used to accommodate the utility services.
10. Most of the utility services can be accommodated inside the Utility Gallery; however
utilities such as sewer and drainage that depends on gravity are excluded from the
utility gallery.
Ministry of Municipality & Urban Planning

/ Urban Planning & Development Sector /H.Q.

Guidelines for the application of the new typical road cross - sections and utilities corridors

11. Different Options for Utility Galleries were provided. Agreement in principles of
adopting Utility Galleries among all stakeholders was reached. However, all
stakeholders are kindly requested to add any specific requirement which they may
require. Find attached "Utility Gallery Construction Limitations" as identified and
labeled by Kahramaa (Appendix III). This document was attached to most of
Kahramaa's relevant correspondence.

4. Implementation procedure
For a successful implementation of the proposed typical cross section und utilities corridors
the following requirements shall be satisfied:
1. Close collaboration between all stakeholders during the feasibility study, concept and
detail design stages is a mandatory requirement.
2. All utility services within the R.O.W must be constructed, or appropriate and sufficient
ducts and manholes/chambers be placed and accepted by MMUP and the relevant
utility providers prior to the commencement of roads / carriageways construction. The
appointed consultant/contractor for design and construction of the infrastructure
projects shall produce a utility execution plan during the Concept Design of the
project. This plan shall be approved from all utility providers, PWA and MMUP and
they shall strictly adhere to it.
3. Utility services that are dependent on gravity such as drainage and sewer shall be
designed in close coordination with the site grading and road level plans.
4. As a standard construction practice all deep services, such as sewer and drainage,
shall be constructed prior to shallower services.
5. Details and method of execution procedures of each utility service shall be followed
as per procedures set forth in relevant design and construction manuals in the State
of Qatar.
6. Each utility provider is obligated to design and align their services within the
designated utility corridor / corridors. Exceptions will be considered in special cases
where the designated utility corridor width does not fulfill a specific technical need,
thus requiring additional corridor width. In such cases coordination shall be carried
out with adjoining utility provider and their approval shall be sought. Also a request
shall be submitted to MMUP for consideration and approval.
7. The proposed cross-sections have been derived based on consultation with all
relevant stakeholders; however it is MMUP's understanding that not all the
designated corridors will be utilized by the assigned services authorities. Therefore,
upon coordination and mutual agreement between utility authorities, further
refinement / modification of the cross-sections can be undertaken to ensure optimum
and most cost effective utilization of the ROW is achieved.

Ministry of Municipality & Urban Planning

/ Urban Planning & Development Sector /H.Q.

Guidelines for the application of the new typical road cross - sections and utilities corridors

5. Future considerations
The formed technical committee, (the technical working team which was formed upon
request of the subsidiary committee for Infrastructure and General Services) will continue
their work to study and find a suitable solution to all outstanding technical issues related to
infrastructure. The head of the committee shall call for a meeting to discuss the infrastructure
standing issues or upon request from Subsidiary committee of General Services and
Infrastructure (SCGSI). The following issues shall be further studied and discussed in the
future meetings:
1. Connection points: The points connecting new utility services, aligned as per new
proposed cross sections, and the existing utility services executed as per Qatar
Highway Design Manual (QHDM). For each individual utility services, the connection
points shall be studied and a technical solution to be found and agreed upon.
2. Marker System: It is strongly recommended to use an Electronic Marker System for
each individual utility which will enable field personnel to uniquely identify
underground facilities in the field to correlate to plant maps or in the absence of
maps. Such a system will reduce the amount of time and excavation required to
locate and access specific underground facilities.
3. Detail design of the Utility Gallery: The Gallery options shall be studied further.
Technical limitation and safety issues shall be considered. Specific Gallery cross
section for specific situation to be prepared. The technical team to discuss each
individual case and responsibility of each stakeholder to be determined and agreed
upon. Maintenance of the Utility Gallery's civil structures shall be the responsibility of
the PWA.
4. Additional Road Cross Sections: Further road cross sections which have not been
covered in the new proposal shall be prepared and studied by the technical team.
Any non standard cross section shall be agreed upon by all stakeholders and then
circulated for final approval and enforcement.
5. Geographic Information System (GIS): The realigned utility corridors within the given
R.O.W shall be added to the MMUP Geographic Information System (GIS) as "GIS
Layer". All relevant stakeholders shall have an access to this layer in additional to
their own utility information. This will enhance and improve the current utility approval
process. The database shall be kept up-to-date. This is the responsibility of each
individual utility provider. More details to this issue will be provided in the near future.
6. Manuals: After acceptance and adoption of the new proposal, the road cross section
shall replace the existing sections in all used manuals in the State of Qatar. The
technical team will review and amend accordingly all related sections in all applicable
technical manuals.
7. Detail Drawings: Standard detail drawings or enhancement of the existing detailed
drawing shall be developed and adopted.

Ministry of Municipality & Urban Planning

/ Urban Planning & Development Sector /H.Q.