JEDDAH, 31 August 2005 — The eagerly awaited King Abdullah underpass on King Fahd (Sitteen) Street leading to the Sharafiya flyover opened for traffic around midnight Monday.
“This is something we’ve been looking forward to and the underpass, which is one part of the entire King Abdullah Bridge project, will be a boon to drivers like me,” Muhammad Omar, a senior sales executive in a telecommunications company, said.
The opening scheduled for last Sunday was delayed on requests from the Traffic Department, according to a city official.
Throughout yesterday, motorists used the underpass, although not many road users were aware of its opening. Cars coming down the flyover are able to use the underpass along King Fahd Street. Likewise, drivers are able to use the underpass to go along the flyover to downtown and the Makkah flyover.
Osama Al-Jihni, a customs employee, said he would now save at least 10 minutes when going to work every day. “I’m very happy with the new underpass and hope the other part of the project involving the roundabout and the bridge will be ready soon.”
The new underpass is brightly lit and is described as an “engineering feat.” Work on another underpass that links King Fahd Street with Waly Al-Ahd Street is in progress. Once this too opens traffic flow is expected to ease at King Fahd-Waly Al-Ahd Street junction, one of the busiest intersections in the city.
Experts recalled how the Kingdom has made use of expertise in road tunneling since constructing the Kingdom’s first road tunnels on the Abha-Jizan highway and culminating in the impressive engineering feat of the eight-lane Al-Diwan underpass in Jeddah.
“This tunnel uses high-tech design and construction in every aspect but especially in lighting and underground water level control,” a municipal official said. One of the earliest underpasses was the one leading to King Abdul Aziz University, which was built in 1987.
Mohammed Bamanie, deputy mayor for projects and construction, told Arab News recently that three targets for roads in the city had been identified over the next five years: “To free up the major intersections, to complete some main roads west to east, and to upgrade some main roads north to south and upgrade them to the status of highways.”
The municipality’s other contract is to build an underpass on Waly Al-Ahd Street and under Madinah Road which, in effect, will make it free of traffic lights. Khaled ibn Al-Waleed Street and Othman ibn Affan Street will be improved to ease traffic through-flow. This will solve the problems at four or five of the worst intersections.
