The 220,000-square foot, 2-level Union Square junction station on the Dubai Metro is the largest underground Metro station complex in the world.
The design of the metro stations in Dubai reflect the 4 elements of nature (Water, Air, Fire and Earth) alongside the heritage design of Al Ras metro station and Al Ghubaiba metro station.
More than 30,000 engineers and workers from 5 main contractors and 150 subcontractors worked on this project using sophisticated methods in constructing viaducts and tunnels, using 10 gantry cranes and three tunnel-boring machines.
Diverse methods have also been introduced for paying Dubai Metro fares using automated fare collection cards (Nol), and wireless internet connectivity (WiFi) is provided all over the network. Each train has a capacity of 640 passengers. Air-conditioned footbridges have been constructed and fitted with travelators ensuring smooth passenger traffic with full attention to meeting requirements of people with reduced mobility.
The RTA overcame a host of challenges while constructing the Metro in Dubai at the top of which was delivering the project on time. The 4 years that it took for the project is considered a record.
The list of challenges also included building the world’s longest driverless Metro system to be constructed in a single project, recording an average accident rate below the international rate with one injury per one million working hours, and providing the highest level of architectural finishes in the trains, stations and annexes.
Full integration has also been established with other modes of transportation such as buses, taxis and water transport using state-of-the-art technology.