Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH –

The Municipality of Jeddah has embarked on an ambitious project to ease traffic congestion at the intersection of two major roads in the city. A tunnel project, costing over SR240 million, is being constructed at Prince Muhammad Bin Abdulaziz (Tahlia) Street's intersection with Madinah Road. The east-west underpass with a length of 650 meters will have two lanes in each direction of the Tahlia Street.

The work started in mid-December after various phases of studies and project designing. The period of implementation of the project, costing SR240,393,735, is 30 months. The project will help ease the heavy traffic congestion at the intersection, especially during the peak hours.

It is part of the municipality's strategic plan to tackle choking traffic by implementing a series of underpasses and bridges on the main roads and intersections across the city. During the period between 2010 and 2018, the municipality implemented scores of traffic projects, including dozens of bridges, flyovers and tunnels, to facilitate the traffic movement.

Among these projects was the King Fahd Road bridge intersecting Prince Saud Al-Faisal Street at the Bicycle Square, which has a length of 583 meters and a width of 13.5 meters with three lanes in each direction.

The King Fahd (Sitteen) Road bridge across Heraa Street at the White Horse Square and Prince Sultan Bin Salman Street was another major project. The 2.5-km long and 56-meter wide bridge is considered one of Jeddah’s longest bridges.

There are a number of other projects, which are under various phases of implementation, aimed at further releasing the traffic jams along the main roads and intersections.

According to municipality sources, there has been high coordination among the officials, consultants and contractors to ensure the implementation of the projects on time by removing all bureaucratic bottlenecks.