File Photo: An aerial view Regional Ring Road. Photo courtesy of Egyptian Presidential website.
The shutdown affects traffic coming from the intersection of the Regional Road with the Alexandria Desert Road and extending up to the intersection of the Regional Road with the Suez Desert Road, with diversions in place from 6:00 a.m. local time.
The decision follows a high-level inspection ordered by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi after safety concerns emerged during ongoing maintenance.
The ministry confirmed in a statement that the closure will enable faster installation of reinforced paving, warning signs, and speed limiters on the heavily used freight route.
A committee of road consultants from Cairo, Ain Shams, and Zagazig Universities confirmed the road's design and implementation were sound, with no inherent weaknesses, the ministry statement added.
The road's first phase was completed in 2013, following the implementation that began in 2012, with the entire road finished in 2018.
Extensive maintenance has been required since then, particularly in sections subject to heavy transport loads.
The advisory committee recommended using concrete pavement for these sections due to its ability to withstand heavy loads and the availability of its raw materials from Egyptian sources.
The measure comes hours after President El-Sisi ordered a temporary closure of sections of the Regional Ring Road in Menoufia Governorate for maintenance following two deadly incidents on the road in the past ten days.
On Saturday, nine people died, and 11 more were injured in a fatal collision involving two microbuses on the Regional Ring Road in the direction of Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road in Menoufia Governorate.
The crash follows another incident a week earlier on the same Regional Ring Road near Ashmoun, also in Menoufia Governorate, where a transport truck and microbus collided, leaving 18 young women dead and three injured.
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