Business & Finance Club - Jeddah : Work has started on a $25m underpass designed to ease traffic in Jeddah’s city centre, part of a wider five-year, $800m plan to cut road congestion in the Saudi city over the coming years.

The underpass is being constructed on the intersection of Madinah Road and Sari Street, one of the city’s busiest intersections and the site of a major congestion at peak times. It’s envisaged the free-flowing underpass will ease pressure on the road network once completed. The project duration is 24 months.

“The Sari Street and Madinah Road intersection is considered a vital link between the east and west of Jeddah and has a huge traffic problem,” Saeed Ba-Fahad, director general of the municipality’s Bridges and Tunnels Department said. 

“A few months ago, the municipality completed the overpass on Sari Street and Prince Sultan Road that has helped ease traffic. The municipality plans to find permanent solutions to traffic problems in the city as opposed to temporary ones,” Ba-Fahad said.

The municipality completed four flyover projects in the city in 2009 and recently opened a new underpass at the intersection of King Fahd Street and Prince Mohammed bin Abdul Aziz Street. Ba-Fahed said three more bridges and tunnels are due for completion this year as part of the city’s traffic plan.