The works at Mkalles roundabout were recently concluded and the bridge as well as the tunnel have been open for a while now. However a few crucial points puzzle me:
- The roundabout is still a roundabout.
- Let’s say you are coming towards Mkalles from Jisr el Basha and you need to make a u-turn to go back, you actually must drive through the whole roundabout and get stuck in the traffic that’s going towards Mansourieh, Dekwene, Hayek and Habtoor. This fact also applies whether you are coming from Dekwene, Mansourieh, Hayek, or Habtoor.
- Most people that drive down daily towards Beirut, from Mansourieh, Daychounieh, Ain Saade and the surrounding Matn areas were waiting for the works at Mkalles to finish hoping the roundabout will no longer be the bottleneck it once was. Sadly though, this is not the case since these people are not even being able to easily reach the infamous roundabout in the first place. The thing is, the actual bottleneck is at the SKAFF gallery turn (a.k.a mafra2 l OTV) where the incoming traffic specially during rush hours is barely if any organized.
The situation is only going to become worse with the school season just starting and the rain we all love soon pouring on our well paved roads.
I understand that traffic jams are common, specially in our country, but a 3 long years multi-million dollar project should have provided the needed solution in an area where traffic is a major issue.
photo via http://throughatoonerdarkly.wordpress.com/
Not to mention that the roundabout now features traffic lights!!
Except the “mafra2 l OTV” that was and still making lot of traffic which I agree on and think it should be one way to Dekwaneh, the bridge and tunnel reduced the traffic too much on that area.
The major trouble areas that next need to be tackled:
1. SKAFF/OTV road
2. Habtoor roundabout has become a congested roundabout in its own right. It will need a solution soon too
3. The interchange at Maison du Pain causes a lot of traffic, often because of the traffic officers. Class Sport and Abed Tahan are also culprits–they need to sort out parking, because it’s unacceptable to have to cross the highway if you want to shop or hit the gym
Couldn’t agree more
actually, the roundabout works well if people would use it as a roundabout. You don’t make a u-turn in a roundabout, it is dangerous and they are not designed that way (despite seeing people do that on a daily basis). You proceed through the roundabout until you get to the arm/branch of road you need and then you exit it – if you need a u-turn you proceed through the roundabout until you return to where you started (opposite direction of course!). As you approach some roundabouts there are dedicated uturn lanes, but at Mkalles there isn’t so traffic should follow the flow as expected.
The traffic light issue is crazy, that is a new one for me – that is confusing, esp. at night. Another design flaw was how they shaped the exit lane towards Jisr al Basha, it is designed to be approached from a specific angle and while I think I can see why made it that way it causes problems and should have been avoided.
the other issue too is that the “entertainment center” Blackpoint always has taxis and such parked in front, which make a two lane road into one – at a particularly bad spot. People coming up from Jisr El Bacha want to turn right towards Mansourieh but get stuck with these parked cars.