Motorists entering and departing from Dammam City got relief from the heavy traffic they have been experiencing during the last three days after Dammam traffic police opened new roads and installed traffic lights at Dammam Stadium, Nasariya, and Madinathul Ummal areas and in front of the tunnel closed for major repairs. The Dammam-Khobar tunnel was closed to traffic Dec. 25 to undergo major repairs. The tunnel has been caving in due to the leakage of water in its lower level. Due to the continuous efforts and hard work of the traffic department to ease the flow of traffic on the Dammam–Khobar highway, motorists have been enjoying a smooth ride as of Monday morning. Traffic police are still monitoring the situation and manually operating signals in order to control the flow of traffic at major intersections. The closure of the highway tunnel initially caused heavy traffic disruptions and chaos. However, motorists have now become familiar with road diversions, newly fixed traffic signals and the fine-tuning of the manual signal operation. Now only a few cars are seen waiting at traffic signals. Policemen were nevertheless deployed all day to prevent traffic congestion and chaos and maintain the smooth flow of traffic near the problem areas. Motorists say that they are very happy with the successful arrangements of re-routing, the manual control of signals and the opening of some intersections. The newly constructed tunnels and flyovers in the city will make it possible to travel to King Fahad International Airport from Khobar without any signals.
