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A large road network connects
Cairo with other Egyptian towns and villages. There is a new
Ring Road that surrounds the suburban areas of the city,
with exits that reach to virtually every Cairo district.
There are flyovers, and bridges such as the Sixth of October
Bridge that accommodates straight, fast and efficient means
of travel from one area of the city to the other. Cairo
traffic has a bad reputation of being overwhelming and
overcrowded.
The Cairo Ring Road is Egypt's best known byway. It consists
of a subset of the freeways that encircle the city of Cairo,
Egypt and covers the Greater Cairo Region. The Ring Road was
first constructed in the late 1980s.
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Presently, the Cairo Ring Road is a crescent shaped
road, whose southwestern area remains unfinished, as
the direction of the highway would take it very near
the Giza pyramids – a vicinity which has been on the
UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1979.
The total area of the ring road is about 110 km (68
mi) with more than half of it on desert land, less
than a quarter in urbanized area, and more than that
on arable land. The highway consists of eight lanes.
The total allocation for the project was 3 billion
Egyptian pounds. The purpose of the study of the
long-term master scheme of the Greater Cairo area in
Egypt brought forth the implementation of a circular
shaped road around the Greater Cairo agglomeration,
with the ability to add to the rapidly and
significantly to a number of key city development
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Firstly, to reduce vehicular traffic inside the existing
agglomeration (mainly the through traffic) by
interconnecting the entrances and exits of the region;
Secondly, to support the goal of city de-concentration; and
finally, to protect farming areas from urban development.
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As a result of the
road not being a closed circular highway, there is a
project in progress to close the circle. This
project has started and the UNESCO has refused that
the southern part of that major road passes by the
Pyramids as it is an internationally protected area.
The project had thus relocated the closing of the
road on top of the Marioteya waterway. Building has
commenced and is expected to be finished in 2009.
Anyone who has gone through this ring road from say
Maadi toKatameya, or points further, will agree it
is the most hazardous road, with the most inept,
devil may care drivers known to man.
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Accidents are an
everyday occurrence, and no police intervention to check the
bad drivers tearing down the road at break neck speeds,
zigzagging all over the lanes. Not just cars but the 1/2 ton
delivery trucks, mini buses, large articulate trucks, large
buses all act the same. All speeding somewhere so they can
have a snack and boast to friends how fast they made the
trip.
Night time is even worse, with lots of drivers with no, or
little lights, and huge trucks parked on side, or broken
down, even in the fast lane.
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