The city of Split will experience some significant traffic changes come June. And yes, we can (hopefully) all share one big sigh of relief.
As previously announced, the new traffic regulations for vehicles at Split’s busy city harbor will begin on June 1, which will push all traffic one-way around the port. You can read more about that project here.
Furthermore, the deputy mayor of Split, Nino Vela, announced that on June 9, the highly anticipated city rail project would begin, reports Dalmacija Danas on May 15, 2019.
With this news comes a series of projects that plan to reduce the traffic problems of the city and its surroundings this year and next.
“The new traffic regulations in the city harbor begins with the realization of the public city rail project. We are enhancing public transport, especially in the most heavily loaded parts of the city such as the city harbor and Kopilica. With the new traffic regulations, the current two-way traffic in the city harbor will be reversed to one-way, which will increase the flow of traffic by two and a half times,” said Vela.
“The many new bus lines that will drive through the harbor will experience wait times 5-6 times shorter. Namely, they will not be waiting at the traffic lights as they have been. The bus station will change the direction of its platforms and the site of the current roundabout in the city harbor will be a bus stop of great capacity where, at the same time, there will be two articulated buses, all for better public transport services. This will increase the current capacity of 15,000 people through the city port on buses to 45,000,” Vela added.
Vela says that there will be four new parking spaces for people with disabilities and a dozen new parking spaces for taxis. However, the biggest news is about the two new trains that will drive from the city harbor to Kopilica every 15 minutes, and will take just 4 minutes getting from point A to B.
“We work on intermodal traffic so that air, sea, road and rail traffic are viewed as a whole. Soon there will be a train and bus connection. I'm just driving to Zagreb where I will coordinate the tickets at the Ministry and Croatian Railways with representatives of Split Traffic, after which its price will be known. In short, the traveler will be able to use the same ticket with the transport of buses and trains. The popular "metro" will be in the exclusive function of public transport. We are the first in Croatia. The idea of a city train was launched because we want to use the resources we have in Split. The railway in the town is almost dead. First, we will put in place what we have, and in parallel, we are launching projects for the construction of new traffic, i.e., roads and railroad tracks,” announced the Split deputy mayor.
And what’s going on at Kopilica today?
“At Kopilica, works on the main railway station are nearing the end and the station will be ready by the end of May. Works on the new bus parking area, with 48 new parking spaces, are underway and will be completed by the end of May. All this is part of the city rail service within the project that launched last year.”
Vela continued:
“Our goal is to connect the city's ferry port and airport. We know that traffic has doubled in the last ten years. The project connecting the city and the airport is underway. We hope to begin designing and realizing it in the next few years. A new 7 to 10 kilometers of new railways will be built.”
And in other Split traffic news:
“We all know that the getting into Split is always a problem. To our encouragement, Croatian Roads started work on the Dugopolje junction at the entrance to Split and these works should be completed by the end of June. Work is underway at the intersection of Poljička and Ul. Zbora narodne garde where the ramps are working, and works should be completed by the end of the year, which will improve the flow of traffic into Split. It is known that during the season there is congestion on the highway itself, which is very dangerous, but also congestion at the entrance to Poljička and Domovinskog rata. This ramp will use the upper-level detour and facilitate the flow in the lower level, thereby improving the flow of traffic. These things are now visible.”
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