Whoever thinks that the numerous new roads branching out of the Cairo Alexandria desert road aim at facilitating the way to and from Egypt’s North Coast for the benefit of holidaymakers, is definitely mistaken. Equally misled are those who fail to observe that new roads crisscrossing the Western Desert are basically development axes that serve land cultivation projects in the desert. These traffic axes include one which travels 135km from Wadi al-Natroun 150 km northwest Cairo, to Alamein on the Mediterranean, and another which runs 365km northwest Cairo to Dabaa The new axes provide much needed transport arteries for projects in remote, sparsely populated areas; serving to move labour force, production inputs, services, and produce.
Likewise, the decade-long work to develop local inter-governorate roads into fully fledged freeways must be viewed in the same development-oriented light, even if to all appearances they seem to serve only a limited segment of Egyptians. Major among these roads is the North Africa coastal road which travels along Egypt’s north coast for some 1000km, from Dumyat (Damietta) Port in the east to Salloum on Egypt’s Libyan border in the west, to join other segments that stretch along Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. This brings to mind another international road yet under study, the Pan Africa road that would run the length of the African continent from north to south, connecting Alexandria to Cape Town along some 10,000km, serving transport and investment continent-wide.
The northern Coastal Road, commonly known as the Alexandria Matrouh Road, made headlines last month owing to the work taking place to turn it into a regional freeway. This naturally required a direct two-way road with no interception, intersection, or branching road. Service roads were installed on both sides of the freeway to connect it with urban communities, services and activities along its route. The freeway is connected to the service roads through rotary interchanges.
Maps of the freeway and interchanges were posted by the project management on social media channels, with explanations of all aspects of the project, also guidelines to drivers of private and public vehicles of the various alternatives to switch between the freeway and the service road. It looked direct and user-friendly, especially given that the necessary signposts were very clear. So what happened?
It appears that the original aim to turn the Coastal Road into a coastal North Africa freeway somehow got lost; the aim was seemingly reduced to serving the holidaymakers on Egypt’s North Coast resorts which, according to official figures, stretch over 55km on the Alexandria Matrouh road. This limited outlook led to a serious change in the original plan; a change that I can only explain off as done for the interest of holidaymakers and homeowners in that stretch.
Drivers on the coastal road during the last two weeks have noted that both service roads were made to accommodate two-way traffic. This means that the service road on the coastal side which houses holiday resorts, where traffic should have run from east to west, now accommodates traffic in two directions; whereas the service road that serves local communities south of the coast, which should have only accommodated traffic from west to east, is now a two way road.
The shocking truth is that the only logical explanation for this change was to respond to demands of residents and frequenters of the North Coast resorts. Given that the original plan conformed to international road standards that secure safety, the change in plan defies reason.
The situation resulted in chaotic traffic overlap and intersection. Images and accounts of the situation have gone viral on Facebook, with drivers appalled at the chaos and terrified to travel these roads at night. I cannot help recalling the Arabic folk proverb: “Trying to apply kohl to her eyes, he blinded her”. So much for messing things up.
Watani International
1 July 2022
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