CREATS Phase I Final Report Vol. III: Transport Master Plan Chapter 5: URBAN ROAD SYSTEM 5.3 FUTURE ROAD SYSTEM PLANNING 5.3.1 Issues (1) Regional Highway Network The Completion and Extension of the Ring Road Network At the end of July 2002, the Ring Road is basically complete except for the closing of the ring in southwest Giza. It has been a major struggle for the MHUUC how to close the Ring Road since its early days of construction. The alignment of the Ring Road in the southwest link shows that it has been critically difficult to close the link at the Haram area. The MHUUC was planning to extend the Ring Road from Interchange IC22 (see Figure 5.3.1) to the 6th of October Road, however, it was finally cancelled due to the international pressure for protecting the cultural heritage preservation area. The Ministry is now planning to extend the road from IC01 to the 6th of October Road by the plan shown in Figure 5.3.1. It also has a branch link to westward to bypass the traffic from the Ring Road (IC01) to Alexandria Desert Road. Source: JICA Study Team based on the information from GOPP Figure 5.3.1 The Ring Road Extension Plans One of the major functions of the Ring Road, to facilitate the connection to the 6th of October City with the existing urban area, can be achieved with this extension. However, unclosed Ring Road will still remain a problem in the network since 5 - 21 CREATS Phase I Final Report Vol. III: Transport Master Plan Chapter 5: URBAN ROAD SYSTEM north-south traffic demand on the Ring Road at the western part of Cairo remains in an inconvenient condition without direct linkage of the Ring Road. The possibility of closing the Ring Road in this area has several alternatives. The MHUUC is still planning to close the ring with Maryotia St. (IC02-IC21). In this area, it is neither appropriate nor possible to have a viaduct structure from environmental (aesthetic) viewpoint in protecting the view of the Pyramids. Remaining alternatives will be at-grade or underpass (tunnel) structure. At-grade structure, however, will not satisfy the traffic demand or level of service that the Ring Road should be able to offer unless full access control is provided by all of the crossing roads to be in grade separation. This would only be possible by making all of crossing roads to underpass, which seems to be unrealistic. The underpass structure of the Ring Road itself, either by full tunnel or open-box structure, will be the only possible alternative. New Community Development and Regional Road Network The pioneer Egyptian policy of urban expansion in the desert started in 1970s to protect arable land along the Nile and in the Delta from disordered urban sprawl. More than 10 new communities have been planned and constructed during the last 30 years by the policy. Many of these new communities had an objective of having their own economic base to self-sustain their urban activities. Today many private industries are in function in these new cities, and housing units and infrastructure have been built or under construction. The population of these new cities, however, still stays in moderate number, which suggests the implementation of these huge urban planning projects needs a long time. The CREATS estimate of the 2001 population of the three major new communities, their ultimate plans by the GOPP1 and CREATS estimates of the 2022 population (the medium growth scenario) are shown in Table 5.3.1: Table 5.3.1 Population of Four Major New Communities (2001/Ultimate/2022 CREATS Estimate) 2001 Ultimate 2022 New Communities Population Population Plan CREATS Estimate 6th of October/ 200,000 2,000,000 1,170,000 Sheikh Zayed 10th of Ramadan 196,000 1,000,000 580,000 New Cairo 90,000 750,000 700,000 Source: JICA Study Team and GOPP For the transport planning of the Study Area the critical issue will be the right of way for future plans. If the ultimate urban plan necessitates further widening of the existing regional corridors, it is critically important to secure the right of way for these transport plans. Once urban sprawl and unplanned land use activities proceed 1 Improving Long-term Master Plan of Greater Cairo Region, Suggested Strategy for Improving, 1997, GOPP 5 - 22 CREATS Phase I Final Report Vol. III: Transport Master Plan Chapter 5: URBAN ROAD SYSTEM along the existing regional corridor, the development of any new major transport corridor will be extremely difficult. It is important to control the land use of planned new regional transport corridor from a long-term viewpoint. (2) Urban Primary and Secondary Arterial Street Network The exercise of the functional classification of the road network revealed important issues on primary and secondary arterial street network within the Ring Road area. The following are considered as the major issues in the urban primary and secondary development. Firstly, the urban primary and secondary arterial street network within the Ring Road (Figure 5.2.3) shows there are several areas where the primary and secondary arterial network is particularly scarce. These areas are particularly Shobra El Kheima and Matareya/Ain Shams. These northern urbanization of Cairo was formulated by typical urban sprawl, and informal settlement has proceeded. Such informal settlement has caused the urbanization without appropriate primary and secondary arterial street network. Particularly, Matareya/Ain Shams has serious lack of both primary and secondary arterial system. A decent arterial network development for these areas is one of the major issues in the urban road system within the Ring Road. Secondly, some of the access roads to/from the Ring Road are not functioning well. Currently there are 22 interchanges on the Ring Road (Figure 5.3.2). Many of these interchanges are connection facilities with major National and regional roads in GCR. There are, however, also many interchanges/connection points which do not satisfy the expected function due to their poor access roads to the inner urban area. These “poor access interchanges” are particularly Saft El Laban Axis IC (No.3 ), Rod El Farag Axis (No. 5), Bahtem-Ring Road Axis (No. 9), Teraat El Gabal St. (No. 11) and Moasaset El Zakah St. (No. 12). These important access roads should be properly improved so that these designated interchanges can function as it was expected in the design. 5 - 23 CREATS Phase I Final Report Vol. III: Transport Master Plan Chapter 5: URBAN ROAD SYSTEM Source: JICA Study Team based on the information from GOPP Figure 5.3.2 Location Map of the Cairo Ring Road Thirdly, the southwest part of Nasr City has a discontinuity of primary arterial connection due to the military facilities. The lack of primary arterial connection through this area is expected to be one of the major traffic problems in the future as the traffic volume in this area increases. Fourthly, grade separation of intersections has been well developed in all over the urban area, and this effort is still going on. Cairo Governorate is planning to invest LE310 million for grade separation projects, which is 60 % of total new road project budget of LE518 million for the next five years (2002/03 – 2006/07). Qalyobeya and Giza Governorates are also planning to spend LE 44 million (40 % of road project budget) and LE 184 million (51 % of road project budget), respectively. These projects are planned based on the existing congestion and necessity, which are appropriate methodology of planning. As a long-term transport master plan, however, CREATS should be able to propose the policy of future planning for grade separation in the urban area. (3) Future Traffic Demand and Road Capacity Imbalance Although it is critically important to accelerate the public-transport-based transport system in order to satisfy the huge demand increase during the next 20 years, it does not mean the improvement of road capacity can be ignored. CREATS socio-economic forecast results expect that the current number of vehicles in the GCR is 1.05 million vehicles, and it is expected to increase up to 2.5 million in Year 2022. This means GCR will have to accommodate 2.5 times more number of vehicles in the area over the next 20 years. 5 - 24 CREATS Phase I Final Report Vol. III: Transport Master Plan Chapter 5: URBAN ROAD SYSTEM Due to the expected economic growth, the car ownership will increase. Even if the rail-based public transport infrastructure, such as Metro, increases the trip speed of the trips, it is difficult to attract private car owners to shift their trips to public transport, once they have reached to the level of owning their own vehicles. The more congested road condition may discourage the private car owners to use their cars, and it may promote the shift of the modal share from private to public transport. The problem, however, is that the road-based public transport in the mixed traffic will also severely suffer from the traffic congestion on the road. There are some other road users such as cargo traffic, which cannot shift their transport to mass transit. This means that even if the urban transport policy in CREATS is to give higher priority to “people’s mobility” rather than “vehicle’s mobility”, it does not mean the road development can be ignored. On the contrary, the sharp increase in vehicle ownership suggests that substantial increase of road capacity will be indispensable for GCR over the next 20 years. 5.3.2 Approach and Action (4) Primary and Secondary Street Improvements Ring Road Closing on Maryooteya Street Between the possible alternatives for closing the Ring Road in Giza, which are Mansooreya Street (IC01-IC22) or Maryooteya Street (IC02-IC21), the Maryooteya Street has obviously higher advantages in terms of right-of-way.