|
Dar city council for more flyovers
2007-07-23 09:10:33
By Pascal Shao
The Dar es Salaam City Council says it is seriously weighing the possibility of putting up a sizeable number of flyovers and underpasses at or near road junctions in a bid to reduce road traffic congestion in the country`s commercial capital.
The city’s newly elected deputy mayor, Ahmed Mwilima, said in an exclusive interview with The Guardian at the weekend that the council`s current focus is on improving existing roads “but our vision is to have flyovers to ease traffic jams in the rapidly expanding city of an estimated four million inhabitants”.
`The magnitude of road traffic congestion is especially huge at the junctions where vehicles converge, particularly during peak or rush hours, even if the roads are undergoing some refurbishing,` he explained.
The University College of Lands and Architectural Studies (UCLAS), a constituent college of the University of Dar es Salaam, recently came up with what it presented as a cost-effective and possibly permanent way of solving the problem of road traffic congestion in the city of Dar es Salaam.
The college supported its plans with an artist`s impression of what it meant, triggering an avalanche of support and admiration from urban experts and members of the larger public.
The UCLAS plans included improving intersections by constructing flyovers or putting in place underpass lanes to ensure that vehicles did not needlessly bump into one another.
The lanes would facilitate movement of vehicles heading to various destinations without meeting at the junctions.
UCLAS cited some of the areas where the putting up of flyovers could be ideal as Mwenge, Morocco, Ubungo, Tabata and Shekilango, while recommending underpasses for Kawe Road and St Peter’s Church road junction.
|
