It takes about 30 minutes during the weekend to travel just 3 kilometers on the Tirana-Elbasan highway, due to heavy traffic.
For several months, heavy traffic of vehicles traveling towards the cities of the Southeast of the country has been creating kilometer-long queues along the Tirana-Elbasan axis.
Monitor described this route on Friday, August 21, where it found that the traffic problem starts in the village of Shijon, next to the Elbasan highway.
Specifically, at 16:40, it took half an hour from the village of Shijon to the Bradashesh roundabout, while the journey continued with heavy traffic on the rest of the road.
Under normal traffic conditions, the 3 km from the Shijon area to the Bradashesh roundabout in Elbasan would take approximately 4–5 minutes by car. Due to traffic, the travel time was about 6–7 times longer than normal.
Also, to reach the city ring road, at its entrance, it took about another 15 minutes, but due to heavy traffic.
But the traffic stress experienced by travelers from Tirana is being reflected in the decrease in their frequency of travel to southeastern cities.
In the city of Pogradec, while businesses claimed that foreign demand for accommodation, restaurants and tourist activities is increasing, especially from tourists from France and the USA, local businesses report another trend.
Visitors from Tirana and Elbasan are appearing less in Pogradec compared to the previous 2-3 years, with businesses linking this decline to heavy traffic on the Tirana-Elbasan axis.
Representatives of the "Bimbli" villa in Pogradec, whose main guests for hotel rooms over the years have been locals, claim that the number of capital residents is declining.
"There are still vacationers coming from Tirana, but their number is not like previous years, there is a decrease, especially during the month of July. During the month there is an improvement in the situation, but not like in previous years. One of the reasons could be the heavy traffic on the Tirana-Elbasan highway," they claim.
The decline in vacationers from Tirana is also noted by the managers of small businesses for sports activities on the lake.
Gjergji, who owns several boats for sailing on the lake, claims that the number of vacationers from Tirana and Elbasan has been decreasing in Pogradec for 2 years now. According to him, the main reason is the heavy traffic on the Elbasan highway.
According to him, the number of domestic tourists is led by citizens from Maliqi, Përrenjasi and Korça.
Alternatives to avoid traffic
But now the heavy traffic with long queues on the Tirana-Elbasan highway, especially on weekends from Friday to Sunday evening, is a problem that citizens have been facing for months.
The situation is similar on the way back at the weekend, despite the large number of traffic police forces near the Bradashesh roundabout to normalize the situation. The situation with heavy traffic is also the same if you travel at 10:00 PM or 10:30 PM on Sunday evening.
This problem has become torture for many drivers, even for those returning from the southern coastal cities to Tirana, who, to avoid heavy traffic, choose to enter the capital through Rrogozhina, but end up "from rain to hail", as the Bradashesh roundabout becomes indescribable.
Other citizens claim that they have found an alternative solution to use the old Qafë Kërraba road, for cases when traffic starts to get heavy on the highway, but even this solution is not suggested as very suitable by them, since to enter the city of Elbasan you will again face traffic until the end of the city ring road.
Elbasan Bypass, a Necessary Solution
The traffic problems on this axis, in addition to the high flow of passengers on weekends, and the increased traffic load created by the works for the new Elbasan - Qafë Thanë highway, according to experts, have led to the need to build the Elbasan Bypass, which is necessary to ease the heavy traffic on one of the most important corridors of national movement./ Monitor.al
