Plans for a new motorway to bypass the Athens metropolitan area again on the table

An important old road project, which will constitute the so-called “Bypass of Attica”, is coming out of the drawers and is “dusted off”. This is the Elefsina-Theva-Yliki highway, which the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, spoke about yesterday, announcing its maturation.

As he said, “especially for Kifissou Avenue there is a project that I personally believe in a lot and this is essentially the bypass of Athens, the road from Elefsina to Ylikis. It is a project that we are examining, we have to mature it,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis characteristically said on SKAI radio.

“Obviously we should also look at issues related to the concession contracts themselves. But think how much better things would be in Kifissos if the buses coming from, say, Patras and wanting to go to northern Greece, didn’t enter Athens at all and could bypass the basin of Attica that way.”

What is the Attica Road Bypass?

This is a project with a long history. More than ten years ago, in 2013, it was announced in the midst of a severe crisis by the Ministry of Infrastructure. He then got over seven extensions over a period of almost two years. Finally, in 2015, by decision of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the tender was canceled (it was considered that it would create an Event of Public Liability due to Nea Odos Motorway) and entered the dustbin of history.

In 2019, the New Democracy party had it as a flagship project in its infrastructure program, but did not proceed further in the four-year period 2019-2023. Since yesterday, the prime minister has again put it at the center of the planning of the necessary infrastructure for Attica, which has to face serious traffic problems again.

The highway starting at the junction with Attiki Motorway and Olympia Motorway in Elefsina (at the junction of Agios Loukas) reaches the area of Ylikis via Theva, bypassing the entire urban complex of Athens and North Attica. The operation of the new road axis would automatically mean the decongestion of Kifissos, at least as far as the traffic towards the north is concerned.

The design included the construction of a closed highway with 2 lanes +LEA (shoulder) per traffic flow that would completely bypass Attica and the drivers’ profit would reach 50km. At the point in time where we are now and in view of the planning of the next generation of projects (Attica Road, Metro extensions, etc.) it is certain that the Attica road bypass will be of great concern to us in the coming years due to the serious traffic problem in the urban complex of the capital .

The highway will be 50 kilometers long and will directly connect Elefsina with Theva and Illiki. It will connect the two national highways (Athens-Thessaloniki and Athens-Patras), essentially bypassing Athens and Attica and will improve the quality of life. It is an extremely important and emblematic project.

This road bypass, if implemented, could work beneficially for commercial transport mainly from the port of Piraeus and Elefsina, reducing the distance from Central and Northern Greece by 50 km, that is, by at least 30 minutes.

The big difference comes mainly from freight transport. The emergence of the port of Piraeus, as a gateway for Chinese goods to Europe, brought other multinational companies that saw a significant reduction in the final time through Greece. This traffic can be channeled through the Elefsina-Theva-Yliki highway.

To give a comparison, we must say that from one pier in 2010, 660,000 containers were handled, while in 2022 this number will have increased tenfold, reaching almost 5.5 million containers.