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Swiss super highways to be completed by 2015

Switzerland’s long-term national super highways construction project will be completed by the year 2015 at an estimated cost of SFr65.2 billion ($41.8 billion), the government said Wednesday.

Switzerland’s long-term national super highways construction project will be completed by the year 2015 at an estimated cost of SFr65.2 billion ($41.8 billion), the government said Wednesday.

Outlining progress in the decades-old construction programme, the federal authorities said that the main missing portions of two key highways will be operational by 2003.

Existing gaps will be closed on the A1 highway between Lake Constance and Geneva, as well as the A5 from Solothurn to Yverdon, according to the Transport Ministry.
It said that the construction of urban bypasses, for instance in Zurich and Biel, would have to wait a bit longer and would not be finished before 2012.

Switzerland’s national super highway network is almost finished, as only 17.7 percent, or 220 kilometres, still need to be built. The overall length will be approximately 1853 kilometres.

Construction of the national road grid began in 1959, following a national vote that gave the government a mandate to supervise the construction process. Switzerland’s 26 cantons build and maintain the super highways.

From staff and wire reports.

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR