The government is moving forward with a major road infrastructure upgrade aimed at easing chronic congestion in Athens’ western districts – as decades of traffic congestion appears to have spiked in the post-pandemic period – focusing on the connection between the western section of the Egaleo ring road and the toll-free section of the Athens–Corinth national highway in the working class municipalities of Haidari and Aspropyrgos.
The project includes a series of interventions around the industry and logistics-laden Skaramagas and Schisto regions, including the completion of the western Egaleo ring route, upgrades to existing interchanges, the construction of new grade-separated junctions and the removal of a traffic light-controlled intersection considered a major bottleneck.
According to transport planning studies, the overhaul is expected to improve traffic flow and road safety by increasing roadway capacity and redirecting part of the traffic currently burdening the north-south Kifissos thoroughfare— one of the busiest and most congested traffic arteries in the greater Athens-Piraeus agglomeration — toward a new Schisto–western ring road corridor.
The works also include widening sections of the Athens–Corinth highway near the Schisto and Skaramagas junctions to three lanes in each direction, in line with broader efforts over recent months to modernize transport links connecting Athens, Piraeus, and the industrial zones of western Attica prefecture.
The relevant transport ministry promised that the Skaramagas interchange project would provide an alternative route from the Attiki Odos tollway to Piraeus and the southwest districts while helping reduce congestion on Kifissos.
Source: tovima.com
