By Saoud Al-Barakatiand Ahmad Wahaj Al-Siqqiqui
JEDDAH – The Mayor’s Office has set a purse of SR3 billion to build flyovers and underpasses to ease traffic congestion in Jeddah over the next five years.
Saeed Abdul Qadir Bafaheed, the mayoralty’s head of bridges and underpasses, cited the figure after laying the foundation stone for works on the junction between Sari Road and Madina Road on Saturday.
Those works, he said, will be started by the contracted firm within a week, and will “significantly ease traffic flow in the zone”.
“The Mayor’s Office is resolved to address traffic congestion at all the main hubs of the city,” Bafaheed said.
The works inaugurated Saturday, he said, would involve a 650-meter underpass at a cost of just over SR94.8 million. The facility will have three lanes in both directions. “This is just one of a number of works to tackle congestion on Sari Street, which is one of the main hubs of the east-west Jeddah region,” he said.
“Only last month works were finished on the flyover at the junction with Prince Sultan Road, and another flyover is being built at the junction with Prince Majed Road.”
The mayoralty undertook shifting of telephone, sewage and electrical lines and drinking water pipeline on Sari Street at a cost of SR9.317 million. The shifting of these lines, he said, was done with the cooperation of the relevant departments.
Bafaheed said that bids would soon be up for tender for an underpass at the Sari Street junction with King Fahd Road.
“The underpass is currently being designed,” he added.
Four underpasses have already been completed this year in city center streets to add to the four opened last year, and another three are expected to be completed before the year’s end. A further five flyovers and two underpasses are scheduled for completion within two years.
“Other works in the pipeline include an underpass extension at the junction of King Abdul Aziz Road with Al-Amana Street, an underpass at the Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Street and Madina Road junction, and an underpass at the junction of King Abdul Aziz Road with Palestine Street and Al-Hamra Street,” Bafaheed said. – Okaz/SG
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