How Parsons ‘kept Doha moving’ during the Qatar FIFA World Cup. In an exclusive interview with Construction Week Middle East, Parsons explained how it made mobility possible for the Qatar FIFA World Cup in 2022.
Parsons discussed its partnership with Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashgal) to control traffic and create resilient infrastructure for the major athletic event, including transportation management plans and vehicle access options.
The Public Works Authority of Qatar, often known as Ashghal, contracted Parsons in July 2019 to assist with transportation planning for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
A group of Parsons specialists was sent to Ashghal in May 2021 to serve on the official Ashghal World Cup Team. The team collaborated with important parties, such as the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the Ministry of Interior Traffic Police, the Ministry of Transport, and Mowasalat (Kawa), to make crucial decisions about transportation planning, infrastructure design, and transportation operations for the World Cup to safely and effectively handle the heavy movement of spectators and visitors at events and stadiums while “Keeping Doha Moving.”
To start the project, Parsons created a traffic model to predict and evaluate the effects of various road closure scenarios on Doha’s road network during the Championship.
How Parsons ‘Kept Doha Moving’ during the Qatar FIFA World Cup
The team then evaluated factors like residents working remotely or from home, school closings, restrictions on construction vehicles, license plate management, parking restrictions, media campaigns, sharing real-time travel information, and using transportation apps before making recommendations on Traffic Demand Management (TDM) measures.
This assessment helped develop the Transport Management Plan and Vehicle Access Strategy, ultimately implemented in 2022. The strategy centered around creating traffic diversion plans to provide safe pedestrian areas for fans to enjoy, such as the closure and pedestrianization of Corniche Street, a seven-kilometer-long promenade.
To achieve this successfully, the team designed layout arrangements of roads and junctions within the city, advised on pedestrian detection systems and wayfinding, and modeled more than 100 traffic signals to provide the signal phasing and timings of signalized intersections, taking into consideration the forecasted traffic movements to optimize the flow of traffic through the city.
