ArmInfo. At present, the construction of the road section of the highway is underway, which will connect Babajanyan Street in Yerevan with the city of Ashtarak. This was reported by the press service of Yerevan Municipality.
According to the source, the new road will become part of Yerevan's western ring road. In fact, this is the last stage of the construction of a new road under the sustainable urban development program funded by the Asian Development Bank.
Yerevan Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan followed the progress of the project on the spot. "The city already has effective experience in building such roads. The city is developing and it needs alternative roads. The process with this particular section took quite a long time. In agreement with the residents, changes were made to the project. For this reason, the project has become more expensive, but, nevertheless, I believe that we went on the right path, the right decisions were made," the mayor said.
The total length of the Babajanyan-Ashtarak road section is 9.4 km, the width of the road surface is 24 m. It will have 3 traffic lanes, 3 intersections with secondary roads, and 1 transport hub at the intersection with Silikyan Street. All existing power lines have been relocated. The outdoor lighting system is equipped with LED energy-saving lamps. "Two-thirds of the road was put into operation more than a year ago, about 90% of the works have been completed by one-third. At present, the construction of the bridge continues, four supports of which have already been installed, two are in the process," said Nora Martirosyan, program manager. At the moment, construction is underway between the Babajanyan-Ashtarak and Argavand-Shirak intersections. Taking into account that Babajanyan street will also serve the vehicles moving from north to south, it was decided to include it in the total scope of the contract and overhaul it.
"After the completion of the Argavand-Shirak road section, we saw that Babajanyan Street had been badly damaged over the past 10 years, and there is a need for major repairs, which will be carried out using the funds saved during the construction of the Argavand-Shirak road section. Both the Asian Development Bank and the Government of the Republic of Armenia gave their consent to this," Nora Martirosyan said.
According to the Babajanyan street reconstruction project, the road surface will be completely changed, new sidewalks will be built. <I would like to apologize to the residents living in the area for the fact that we have caused them inconvenience for a long time, but at the same time I want to point out that it cannot be otherwise when building new roads in the urban environment. I am sure that when this road is opened, everyone will be satisfied and the city will solve a big problem," Hrachya Sargsyan stressed.
Sections of the Argavand-Shirak and Babajanyan-Ashtarak roads will connect the administrative districts of Davidashen, Ajapnyak, Malatia-Sebastia and Shengavit. The total length of the western ring road of Yerevan will be 23 km. Its construction will significantly relieve traffic in the capital.
It should be noted that the bypass road construction program is financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the second part of the "Investment Program for Sustainable Urban Development". In February 2017, the Armenian Parliament ratified a loan agreement signed on October 13, 2015 with the Asian Development Bank in the amount of $112.97 million for the construction of bypass roads in Yerevan, which will relieve traffic congestion in the center of the capital.
