Vehicles in Macao are now able to access Urban Zone A with greater ease after the SAR government opened key roads on the reclaimed island to traffic at 10 am today.
In a statement, the authorities explained that the road expansion was intended to enhance mobility and access for residents and businesses that will move to the public housing estates on the island, situated to the northeast of Macao
Some of the major roads that are now fully accessible to vehicles include the A2 flyover, which links the peninsula and Urban Zone A together, but had only been open to cars travelling in the direction of the peninsula.
With this link now available to two-way traffic, vehicles in the peninsula can now travel to the artificial island by way of Avenida 1º de Maio, Rua dos Pescadores and Avenida da Amizade.
At a press conference yesterday, the head of the Transport bureau’s Transport Planning Division, Un Chao Wa, told local media that driving to Urban Zone A via the A2 overpass can cut the travel distance by around 1.1 kilometres in comparison to the original route, which involved passing through Avenida do Dr. Francisco Vieira Machado, Rua Nova da Areia Preta or Avenida do Nordeste.
Other key thoroughfares in Urban Zone A that have opened include Avenida de Tai On, Avenida do Mar de Espelho, as well as parts of Avenida Doutor Ma Man Kei.
In response to the opening of these new roads, the authorities have installed traffic lights along Avenida de Tai On.
[See more: Macao’s CE gives details of four major infrastructure projects]
Two new bus stops – Avenida de Tai On and Edificio Tong Kai – are also scheduled to come into operation from Thursday. Pre-existing buses – 101X, 102X and 103 – will cover these new stops. For more details about the bus routes, click here.
In its statement, the government noted that the roads surrounding the completed public housing estate projects and public facilities had already opened, along with the two flyovers linking the peninsula to Urban Zone A. It added that mobility in the area is expected to improve further with the completion of the second phase of the Rotunda da Amizade viaduct at the end of this year.
“At the moment over 90 percent of the roads in the northern and central districts [of Urban Zone A] have been completed, fulfilling the traffic needs at this current stage,” Wong Kuok Heng, the head of the Public Works Bureau’s construction and infrastructure division said yesterday.
Moving forward, the authorities said they would continue to optimise the routes and arrangement for bus stops based on the transport needs of the public housing residents in Urban Zone A.
Meanwhile, a number of roads in Urban Zone A will be temporarily closed off from today in order to accommodate projects in the area. They include Avenida de Hou Kong and a section of Avenida Central da Zona Este that runs from the Macao Port of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to Urban Zone A. The latter will remain sealed off until the end of December.
