Roads and motorways in Cyprus

Cyprus Motorway logo

Since the arrival of the first motor cars on the island in 1907,[1] Cyprus has developed a modern road network. According to 2002 statistics, the road network in the Republic of Cyprus-administered areas of Cyprus consists of about 7,206 km of paved and 4,387 km of unpaved roads. Although the first motorway in Cyprus, A1, was completed as recently as October 1985, the country already has the most motorway km per capita (38.6 km /100,000 inhabitants) amongst all European Union members.[2] There are no toll paying roads in Cyprus to date.

Maintenance

The Public Works Department of the Ministry of Communications and Works is responsible for the maintenance, improvement and construction of motorways, the majority of rural and interurban road network and the main urban roads. The Municipalities are responsible for the secondary and local urban roads; the District Administration Authorities are responsible for the paved and unpaved district (tertiary) roads and village roads. The Forestry Department is responsible for most unpaved roads in forest areas, this is in order to accommodate the administration and protection of forests.

The Turkish invasion of 1974 radically changed the program of road development and created new priorities in order to cover the augmented needs in the government controlled areas, where 80% of the Cyprus population and the greatest portion of development had concentrated.

Under these circumstances New Road Development Schemes were promoted, which were partially financed by foreign Financing Organizations. Under these development projects new 4 lane motorways were constructed and more are on their way as follows:

Cyprus motorways list

Cyprus Motorway Map
Motorway logo Connecting Cities Status Year completed Special Features
A1 Nicosia - LimassolCompleted1984 1st Motorway in Cyprus, 5,200m Emergency runway
A2 Nicosia - LarnacaCompleted 19911st Modern Motorway in Cyprus, 1st Motorway Interchange in Cyprus
A3 Larnaca Airport - Ayia NapaCompleted 2002 First Beltway in Cyprus
A4 Larnaca - Larnaca AirportCompleted 1986 Non Motorway given an A designation
A5 Larnaca - LimassolCompleted 1996 5,000m Emergency runway
A6 Limassol - PaphosCompleted 1997 950m tunnel, 110m tall bridge, one of the 300 largest in the world.
A7 Paphos - PolisFinal Plans 2016 3 tunnels
A8 Limassol - SaittasPreliminary Designs N/A
A9 Nicosia - AstromeritisPartly under construction 2014 1st Urban Motorway in Cyprus
Nicosia 3rd Ring roadFinal Plans20172 km long underground within Lakatamia

The highway network is continuously developed. The first section of the A9 Nicosia - Astomeritis Motorway between Kokkinotrimithia and Akaki has been completed, whereas the rest is under study. Also the upgrading of the Limassol Junctions and the A1 Nicosia - Limassol Motorway to a 6 lane road between the Strovolos Junction and Alampra Interchange are completed.

The following are under design:

Motorways logo layout, here A1 Nicosia - Limassol logo
Main roads logo layout, here B8 Limassol - Troodos logo
Secondary roads logo layout, here Paphos International airport road logo

Preliminary and feasibility studies are conducted for the:

Road network categories and numbering

Roads and Motorways in Cyprus can be classified into 5 main categories:

Road safety

Cyprus currently holds a worse than average road safety record in the European Union[3][4]

Official figures:[5]

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Accidents 3,172 3,052 3,021 2,080
Injuries 4,232 4,490 3,916 3,712 3,586 3,531 3,176 3,523 3,411
Fatalities 103 132 115 133 118 128 115 111 113 111 98 94 97 117 98 84[6] 89 82[7]
Fatalities/Million 150 189 161 184 162 174 155 149 150 147 129 124 128 154

References

  1. Leonidou, Leo (10 Dec 2007). "100 years since Cyprus’ first road trip". Cyprus Mail. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
  2. "Panorama of transport 2009" (PDF). Eurostat. May 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-18.
  3. "EU road safety 2004 : Regional differences - Issue number 14/2007" (PDF). Eurostat. 06-FEB-07. Retrieved 2009-02-02. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. "Improving road safety in Cyprus" (pdf). European Transport Safety Council. 15 December 2006. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  5. "Road Safety Country Profile" (PDF). European Commission. October 2005. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  6. Saoulli, Alexia (December 16, 2006). "Road safety improving, but more needs to be done". Cyprus Mail. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  7. "More work needed to drop road toll". Cyprus Mail. January 28, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-02.

Part of this article was copied from Cyprus's Press and Information office multimedia software "Aspects of Cyprus".

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