I just saw this photos on bintjbeil.org of an accident inside the airport tunnel last night involving 20 cars but luckily without injuries.
A normal accident on that road usually causes a 30-60 minutes traffic jam due to how narrow the road is, so I can’t imagine how much people had to wait last night until everything got cleared and the tunnel was opened again.
Also, knowing that this is a vital road that connects Beirut to the southern cities and town, I never understood why the government decided to make it a two-lane road only when it was constructed in the nineties which creates a mess not only when accidents occur but also when a car simply breaks down and parks on the right sometimes. And this is why I personally have been avoiding that tunnel for two years now and always go through Ouzai instead.
The reason why this road is a two lanes only is because this road was never meant to be the default road to the south. The main road is the Ousaii road that is much wider (according to plan); however, since the illegal constructions on that road were never taken off and the project was never completed, people are stuck using the airport road.
My exact thoughts everyday on this road. It is so unfair that we are stuck on this road because the government is not strong enough to remove the illegal constructions on the Ousaii road. You see how wide the road is at the beginning on the Ousaii and then it gets smothered by illegal building and then it gets wide again from the other side. The whole traffic jam from the south can be solved with this 1 KM road that the government cannot fix.