The Ministry of Public Works has started the implementation of Qalandia Road rehabilitation project, to solve traffic congestion at Qalandia Checkpoint.

Asma Marzoq- Palestine Economy Portal

For the time being the rehabilitation works of Qalandia Road is being carried out, in order to expand roads leading to the traffic congestion. The expected goal of the project, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Public Works, is to provide a positive solution that touches the citizen's life directly. However, observers believe that the result of the project will be modest because of many reasons.

Hadeel Obaidi a 46 year old female employee, who drives her car on daily basis from her home in Jerusalem in order to reach her working place in Ramallah, says that: "Thinking of the checkpoint causes me a constant concern, because I have to waste long time to pass through the daily traffic congestion, I am obliged to wakeup very early to reach the checkpoint before the morning rush hour, as well I am obliged to leave my working place so fast, once I finish my duty, so as to avoid traffic noon crisis. In brief Qalandia Checkpoint spoils my life".

Hadeel's case is similar to the cases of thousands of Palestinians, who are facing the same problem, despite the abounded promises to solve it. Recently Ministry of Public Works announced that it will start to implement the project of rehabilitation of Qalandia Road, hoping that the project may secure the dream of ending Qalandia crisis.

Farouk Kittaneh, the Civil Engineer of PECDAR, believes that the current rehabilitation process will not solve the problem of traffic congestion drastically, but it may contribute to solve only 20% of the crisis, and it may only transfer the suffocation from one point to another.

Kittaneh who supervised the implementation of Phase I of rehabilitation of Qalandia Road, which was implemented by the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction "PECDAR" 10 years ago, explained that the road is suffering from an engineering defect, which is the presence of three crossroads in a small distance, which does not exceed 400 meters, these intersections are causing the traffic congestion, while the Occupation Authorities are imposing many restrictions against making drastic changes. Clearly the road expansion works being carried out for the time being will not have positive influence on causing change to the daily crisis.

Qalandia Checkpoint, which is made by the Occupation Authority, is considered as the first and most important obstacle for causing this daily suffocation, as the checkpoint and the slow pace of checking the cars and people crossing towards Jerusalem destructs and delays the movement on the other two lanes of these three-lane road.

Qalandia Road is considered the main and lonely traffic hug among the Districts of the West Bank, such as the Northern Districts, Ramallah and Jerusalem. The road is used almost by around 50 thousand vehicles on daily basis, which means about two-thirds of the traffic movement in the West Bank.

The Occupation Authority is closing and disturbing the two main roads of Bitounia and Bitin, such roads could possibly contribute to ease the bottleneck in this area to around 50%.

Kittaneh added: "The lack of separation between Jerusalem vehicles and the rest of the West Bank vehicles, and the lack of availability of a suitable traffic system in the area causes the daily traffic crisis; there is no fundamental solution to the crisis, but only the removal of the Qalandia Checkpoint.

Kittaneh suggested other solutions that could contribute to reduce the daily traffic congestion, such as the possibility of constructing an overpass for the vehicles coming from the Northern and Southern Districts, starting from Al-Ram intersection and ending behind Qalandia Checkpoint.

The Ministry of Public Works has started the implementation and rehabilitation of Qalandia Road since few days ago at a value of US $500 thousand, while the implementation works will take 75 days.

In a press statement, Engineer Fa'eq Al-Deek, Deputy of the Ministry of Public Works stated that the implementation works will include the rehabilitation and pavement of the section connecting between the checkpoint entrance till Abu Al-Shaheed Junction of 800 meters long. The works will also include the construction of two lanes to the road going towards the city of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, in addition to the lanes coming out from the city, the width of each lane would be 3.5 meters.