The Jeddah Municipality will be pumping SR389 million to improve road infrastructure by taking up certain projects to ensure that the city lives up to its image as the gateway to the holy city of Makkah.

It is widely accepted that infrastructure in Jeddah, a city which receives millions of visitors each year, has not kept pace with the growth in urban population, leading to traffic congestion.

In an effort to address this issue, the municipality is in the process of implementing the Jeddah Urban Development Plan as per the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. This has resulted in a number of initiatives that are focused on delivering the city’s new vision.

King Fahd Street, commonly known as Sitteen, is one of the high density traffic roads in the city, where Jeddah Municipality has allocated SR389.5 million to construct tunnels and flyovers to ease vehicular traffic on this road, the municipality announced on Monday.

The city has seen implementation of several large-scale infrastructure projects in recent years. Sewage, flood and storm water projects were initiated to address such issues. The Harmain High Speed Rail is another feather in the cap for the city.

Authorities are making efforts to ease traffic jams and provide hassle-free driving in the city, connecting the seaport and the airport.

Municipal Affairs Minister Prince Mansour bin MIteb is reviewing the projects being implemented in the city.

There are several flyovers and tunnels on King Fahd Street, from the seaport near Balad till the end of Airport Road. Congestion in Nuzha district, particularly between Bicycle Roundabout in Faisaliah district till the end of Harmain Road in Nuzha district, would ease once work on converting this longest road into a speedway without any traffic signal at both ends is completed.

There will be a tunnel at Bicycle Roundabout but, according to Abdul Aziz Al-Ghamdi, the Jeddah Municipality spokesman, the civic body will retain the structure of bicycle on top of the tunnel, as it is one of the landmarks of the city.

Work has already begun on the project from the Bicycle roundabout towards Falaq Roundabout. Falaq square will be replaced with a 575-meter-long tunnel in each direction with three lanes. Upwards at Hera Street, a flyover spanning 1,250 meters is also under construction.