Dar es Salaam’s Ubungo Interchange Partially Opened To Traffic As It Nears Completion

Africa | Infrastructure | Tanzania July 12, 2020

Tanzania’s state-of-the-art traffic interchange currently under construction at one of Dar es Salaam’s major road junctions at Ubungo is nearing completion. As such, in June 2020, it was partially open to traffic, reported some media. The interchange is expected to be fully completed by December 2020.

The traffic interchange called Ubungo Interchange is being constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) at a cost of about $ 87 million. It entails a three level flyover that links three arterial roads, namely, Morogoro Road, Nelson Mandela Road, and Sam Nujoma Road.

On the one hand, Morogoro Road is one of Dar es Salaam’s four arterial roads that radiate from downtown linking it with the hinterland and give the city its iconic overall radial spatial form. The other three radial arterial roads are Nyerere Road, Kilwa Road, and Bagamoyo Road.

On the other hand, Nelson Mandela Road and Sam Nujoma Road together form some sort of an outer ring road or by-pass to the port of Dar es Salaam. The ring road also connects all the four radial arterial roads mentioned above.

Ubungo Interchange is expected to alleviate traffic congestion along Morogoro Road to downtown Dar es Salaam, as well as along Nelson Mandela Road to the port of Dar es Salaam. Whether that will happen when the junction is completed can be questionable. We will tell you why.

Often, traffic interchanges or flyovers alone can not solve traffic congestion problems along involved roads. That is because unless all the roads involved are also improved to become congestion free, from the interchanges to desired destinations, the interchanges can easily be suffocated and rendered ineffective by traffic congestion pushed backwards to them along the roads involved.

In Dar es Salaam, the effectiveness of Ubungo Interchange in reducing traffic congestion along the roads involved will therefore depend on whether the sections of Morogoro Road and Mandela Roads from the interchange to downtown Dar es Salaam and port of Dar es Salaam respectively have been or will be improved to standards that ensure smooth traffic flows, through lets say adequate road widening, as well as provision of over and under passes and even flyovers at junctions. Failure to that, Ubungo Interchange when completed may not deliver the expected results!

Take a look at a video about Ubungo Interchange project by Global TV, as of July 2020. Video voice in Swahili!

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