GAM announces restructuring project for ‘nightmarish’ University Hospital Interchange

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) has appointed JD3 million to a project aimed at restructuring the University Hospital Interchange, which it regards as “a traffic challenge”, according to a report made available to The Jordan Times.

The interchange, which is located on Queen Rania Al Abdullah Street, has been dubbed “a nightmare” by students and staff of the University of Jordan (UJ) who are obliged to pass through it every day as part of their daily commute.

“It is impossible to get to my 8am lecture on time because of the traffic, even though I leave 45 minutes before my class and live only 15 minutes away from the university,” said Lujain Malkawi, a UJ student. 

Ayat Bassam, head of the finance department at UJ, told The Jordan Times, “I live in Zarqa and still get here before my friend who lives in Al Madina Al Munawara and is only a few minutes away. She always blames it on the suffocating traffic.”

The project was announced in partnership with UJ, whose “students, professors, and staff suffer the most and on a daily basis because of the bridge,” according to GAM’s Spokesperson Mazen Farajeen.

However, in a session with the residents of Jubeiha, Amman Mayor Yousef Shawarbeh pointed out that the project is “equally important for the residents of the areas nearby the bridge, given that they are affected by the traffic regardless of where they work or study”.

Jubeiha, for example, is one of the areas that are subsequently affected by the bridge, as their area’s local Committee President Motaz Louzi highlighted.

“The area faces intense traffic as collateral damage for being next to the university. Particularly around the University Hospital Interchange that has only one lane,” he noted.

Citizens of Jubeiha have expressed their discontent not only with the traffic, but also with the increasing road accidents and extra noise that come as a result of the area being an important connector to main streets through the interchange. 

“People take roads that are one-way in two directions just to get out of traffic, it’s very dangerous and it has caused a lot of incidents around here,” said Manal Hasnawi, a citizen residing in Jubeiha.

Her sister-in-law, Sanaa, who lives nearby on a road that is taken as a “shortcut” to Queen Rania Street, added: “We hear noisy cars passing through our neighbourhood playing their radios at full volume at all hours of the night, it has made the area very noisy.”