All vehicles to be allowed on Makarios Ave until September

Drivers will be allowed on Makarios Avenue for a few more months as the period where vehicles would be allowed has been extended until September 1, Nicosia municipality said on Tuesday.

Part of the avenue – from the Dighenis Akritas and Spyros Kyprianou avenues junction to the Evagorou and A.G. Leventis avenues junction – temporarily opened to all vehicles in early January.

On Tuesday the municipality reiterated previous announcements that this would be “a transitory solution until the implementation of the final plan, which will give access to authorised vehicles only”.

The debate on vehicle access on the revamped avenue had been raging for months, and had not been settled when it reopened to the public in early December.

Unveiling the project, mayor Constantinos Yiorkadjis said that there were logistical delays that prevented the municipality from going ahead with its original plan of only allowing authorised vehicles to pass through the avenue, as the proposal involved an automatic camera monitoring system, which has not been implemented yet.

On Tuesday the municipality said that “this transition period is necessary to allow some time for roadworks on A.G. Leventis avenue and side streets to finish,” and give the relevant ministries and services time to finalise the infrastructure and tie up loose ends for the implementation of the final plan.

As an alternative, the municipality had suggested temporarily opening Makarios as a one-way street, with one bus lane and one lane for private vehicles, which was at the time rejected by the traffic research committee, made up of the public works department, the town planning department and the police.

The avenue therefore became pedestrian and bicycle-only until final decisions were made, with Yiorkadjis saying the municipality was waiting for the police to confirm a traffic plan that would work.

After the Christmas season, part of Makarios avenue opened to vehicles, with one of the two lanes exclusively for buses and the second for all types of vehicles with no need for special permission. Both lanes are one-way.

The arrangement was to last until February 15 but has been renewed until September 1, with authorisation from the police.