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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
In 1987 Lebanon had some 8,000 kilometers of roads and a
highway network, most of which was in various states of disrepair.
There were three routes of overwhelming importance, each radiating
from Beirut. To the north was the road to Tripoli, Lebanon's second
largest city, a route that also passed through such major towns as
Juniyah and Jubayl. To the east, crossing the Lebanon Mountains,
was the highway to Damascus, passing through the key town of
Shtawrah. And to the south was the road to Sidon and Tyre
(see
fig. 6). Lebanon possessed a second north-south road axis, running along
the length of the Biqa Valley. Roads in the northern valley
converged on the Beirut-Damascus highway at Shtawrah and linked the
important market towns of Baalbek and Zahlah with the primary road
network. The southern valley's local road network also centered on
Shtawrah at its northern end.
Cross-mountain routes, which linked the northern Biqa Valley
with Juniyah and Tripoli and the southern valley with Sidon, were
of relatively little importance in times of peace. In the 1980s,
however, ordinary travelers have used these routes to circumvent
roadblocks on the major roads, and drug dealers have used them for
transport
(see Crop Production
, this ch.). Private militias have
also used them to secure lines of communication between the coast
and outlying areas. Minor cross-border routes into Syria have also
been important entry routes from time to time for Palestinian and
sometimes Iranian fighters entering Lebanon. These roads have also
served as exit points for produce funneled via Lebanon onto the
Syrian black market.
After its establishment in 1961, the Executive Council for
Major Projects (Conseil Exécutif des Grands Projets) drew up a plan
for a 241-kilometer highway network. The plan was to transform the
three main routes from Beirut into four-lane, divided highways
through the construction of new roads or the expansion of existing
ones. But because of bureaucratic delays, little was done before
the outbreak of the Civil War in 1975, although some roads were
upgraded. A drive to complete the project was undertaken in 1980;
the US$1.6 billion program continued, well into the mid-1980s,
albeit somewhat haphazardly in view of the uncertain security
conditions.
By 1987 most of the sixty-five kilometers of the Lebanon
section of the Beirut-Damascus highway, including a difficult
stretch through the Lebanon Mountains, approximated international
highway standards. The government hoped to be able to implement
plans drawn up by consultants from the Federal Republic of Germany
(West Germany) for a full highway link between Beirut and the
Syrian border. Likewise, most of the northern coastal highway to
Tripoli was complete, except for the final section from Tripoli to
the Syrian border. Work on the southern coastal highway lagged,
however. Some sections between Beirut and Sidon had been completed,
but there was little progress on the stretch between Sidon and
Tyre.
The existence of new highways did not necessarily mean they
were available for use. For example, during much of the early 1980s
stretches of the northern coastal highway were blocked off by local
Christian militias who found it easier to regulate traffic on the
old coast road.
Although the government traditionally allotted high priority to
road building and maintenance, the rehabilitation of the country's
network has been badly hampered by war. Some roads, however, have
been repaired at the behest of Syrian military authorities. In the
south, in the area in which United Nations (UN) troops were
stationed, roads were built and renovated. And along the Israeli
border, but within Lebanon itself, Israel constructed a series of
earth roads in the late 1970s and early 1980s designed to
facilitate troop deployments.
The collapse of the central government necessitated the
development of ad hoc transportation systems. Successive attempts
to revive Beirut's public bus system after the 1975-76 fighting
failed as a new fleet of French-built buses were turned into
barricades in subsequent conflicts, including the 1982 Israeli
invasion. In some parts of the country, business enterprises ran
buses or trucks to ferry their employees to work, but there was no
coherent national transportation system. Shared taxis became the
most common form of public transport. Taxis could be hired to carry
travelers from one town to another, but taxi service might not be
available if militia groups declared a blockade along a particular
route. Such blockades also affected deliveries of key products,
such as food supplies, fuel, and goods intended for import or
export. Travel became prohibitively expensive for ordinary Lebanese
when roads were closed. Keeping the roads open became the
responsibility of a series of armed forces: the militias, the
Lebanese government forces, the UN forces, and, repeatedly, the
Syrian Army. From time to time, responsibility lay with Israeli,
Palestinian, United States, and West European troops.
Data as of December 1987
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