Monivong Boulevard Work Nearly Finished
If all goes well, three bumpy but busy city roads will be repaired at a cost of nearly $1 million by the end of the year.
The end is finally in sight for the water line installation project on Monivong Boulevard, Municipal Public Works and Transportation Director Nhem Saran said.
That job, which took longer than expected, tore up the city’s main commercial north-south route for months.
Drivers tired of choking on dust or slogging through mud searched for alternate routes, causing major traffic jams on Norodom Boulevard.
The Monivong project should be completed by year’s end, along with two other road jobs scheduled to start this week, Nhem Saran said.
Both new projects will resurface roads extending from Wat Phnom south: Pasteur Street (Street 51) to Sihanouk Boulevard and Preah Ang Eng Street (Street 13) to the Royal Palace.
“These roads were built by the French colonial government in the 1930s and 1940s, and they have not been maintained properly, They are very old and particularly hard to navigate in the rainy season,” Nhem Saran said.
The reconstructed roads will ease the traffic on Norodom and Monivong boulevards, he said. The Pasteur Street job is expected to cost about $420,000, while Street 13 will cost $191,000, according to Nhem Saran.
Another job that will ease congestion is the reconstruction of Street 19, another north-south road extending from Wat Phnom to Sihanouk Boulevard, Nhem Saran said. That job, expected to cost about $300,000, is planned for next year.
