Transport Ministry Eyes Major West Athens Road Overhaul

The government is moving forward with a major road infrastructure upgrade aimed at easing chronic congestion in Athens’ western districts – as decades of traffic congestion appears to have spiked in the post-pandemic period – focusing on the connection between the western section of the Egaleo ring road and the toll-free section of the Athens–Corinth national highway in the working class municipalities of Haidari and Aspropyrgos.

The project includes a series of interventions around the industry and logistics-laden Skaramagas and Schisto regions, including the completion of the western Egaleo ring route, upgrades to existing interchanges, the construction of new grade-separated junctions and the removal of a traffic light-controlled intersection considered a major bottleneck.

According to transport planning studies, the overhaul is expected to improve traffic flow and road safety by increasing roadway capacity and redirecting part of the traffic currently burdening the north-south Kifissos thoroughfare— one of the busiest and most congested traffic arteries in the greater Athens-Piraeus agglomeration — toward a new Schisto–western ring road corridor.