Jordan News

Residents of the Fuheis area in Al-Balqa governorate launched a popular campaign under the title “Yes to the closure of bars on Baccalaureate Street,” where residents complain of illegal behavior by bar-goers, most of whom come from outside the area.

The Baccalaureate Street, which connects between Fuheis, Dabouq and Khalda, specifically on Thursday, witnesses disturbances until midnight due to the sounds of loud songs, as well as the voices of customers, and some young men “surveilling” their vehicles in the streets, as well as the closure of sub-streets with vehicles, which impedes the entry and exit of the people. It also prevents them from parking their vehicles near their homes.

A number of residents told the Jordan News Online newspaper, that the situation is no longer bearable, calling for control and security measures to prevent these abuses, and at the same time noting that they will continue to pressure through the popular campaign on social media until the closure of those bars.

Residents believe that the main problem is the presence of a large number of tourist restaurants and bars very close to homes, and from them there is a great nuisance, extending into the dawn hours, after which the “vehicle drifting series” begins, with the use of “sound amplifiers” for some cars and motorcycles, without the slightest respect The presence of parents, including the elderly, children and patients.

The frequenters of these bars also cause a stifling traffic crisis, since most of them do not have parking spaces, so customers resort to queuing in the secondary streets in ways that impede the passage of vehicles, in which they encroach on the parking spaces designated for the people in front of their homes, stressing at the same time, that if a situation occurs A family member may not be able to get out with his vehicle, and civil defense vehicles cannot reach.

They talked about the fact that the majority of young men who leave tourist restaurants and bars are not in their full mental strength as a result of drinking alcoholic beverages, considering that this poses a danger, as it pushes them to act in an aggressive manner with others. She also indicated that many quarrels occur in the place between young men.

Jordan News obtained the following clarification from the former mayor of Fuheis, Eng. Jamal Hattar:

Until the seventies and early eighties of the last century, the Fuheis-Al-Hamr-Sweileh road was the only one connecting Fuheis and Mahis with the capital Amman, the city of Salt and the Balqa governorate.

The number of private vehicles was not more than a few hundred and used the aforementioned road, and the majority of the population used service cars and buses to move to and from Amman and the Balqa Governorate.

– Until that date, the entrances to Fuhais did not bear the character of a commercial organization, and the majority of Fuhais areas were outside the borders of the organization and there are only a few separate houses served by old agricultural roads.

With the urban expansion of the capital Amman towards the west and south, and the expansion of the organizational and urban Fuhais east towards Amman, the movement of vehicles towards the baccalaureate intersection began to increase, and the traffic movement became doubled towards western Amman (through the baccalaureate road), and it greatly diminished towards Sweileh.

Organizationally, the baccalaureate road became 16 meters wide, and commercial construction began on both sides of the road in the late seventies, and the subsequent increase in licenses for all kinds of professions to occupy and invest these buildings.

In April 1994, the Fuheis Municipal Council took a decision to expand the baccalaureate road organizationally to a capacity of 20 meters in a future reading of the reality of traffic and urban development, as it is a main entrance to Fuheis with the capital Amman. The setback is 5 meters on both sides (i.e. 20 meters for the street + 10 meters setback on both sides, i.e. an open road capacity of 30 meters). From the perspective that commercial facilities at the entrances to cities are a common organizational mistake in municipalities that is inconsistent with the development and expansion of cities and the greatly increased traffic loads in all cities.

After the dissolution of the elected municipal council, in August 1994, the width of the street was returned to 16 meters, and the unplanned commercial building expanded to the current reality.

In 2013, the Ministry of Public Works offered a tender for the construction and paving of a road (Baccalaureate Intersection – Shaker Roundabout – Al-Hamr Intersection – Umm Al-Naaj Bridge on the basis of 20-meter organizational schemes). Shakir to the baccalaureate was 16 meters wide instead of 20 meters shown in the bid documents, which necessitated postponing the implementation of the first phase until organizational decisions are taken to widen the road to 20 meters.

– By that date (2013), the commercial construction on the road was largely completed by the owners of the land, which imposed a traffic and urban reality that is difficult to bypass.

– Public Works completed the third and second phases of the project and did not implement the first phase, which required compensation of 400,000 dinars. During the years (2018-2020), the Fuheis municipality spent it from its own budget to enable Public Works to complete the rehabilitation of the Fuheis entrance project towards the baccalaureate, and solve Fuheis problems Traffic.

– With the completion of the Umm Al-Naaj Bridge Al-Fuhais road, the movement of vehicles has shifted from the city of Salt and Al-Balqa governorate, as well as from the city of Mahis and the Southern Jordan Valley, towards the Shaker Roundabout Road – Baccalaureate Intersection, to avoid the historical traffic crises on the Sweileh-University-Amman road.

An updated traffic study conducted by the Fuheis Municipality in early 2018 confirmed that approximately 70,000 vehicles pass daily (in both directions) from Shaker Roundabout in Fuheis to the Baccalaureate Intersection, and the number is constantly increasing.

The city of Fuheis has become the main crossing point for traffic from, to the west and south of the capital, Amman, towards the governorate of Balqa, Mahis, and the southern Jordan Valley, and vice versa.

The great expansion in the construction of unorganized commercial buildings at the entrances to Fuhais, the increase in the demand for licenses of all kinds of professions, and the licensing of tourist restaurants (from the Ministry of Tourism), and the transformation of Fuhais into a transit city, which greatly exacerbated the traffic and traffic crisis, and created daily traffic jams that greatly affected the city. The city of Fuheis and its residents and the existing commercial interests, which will be negatively affected in a way that threatens their continuity and success if the Ministry of Public Works does not take the initiative to implement the traffic solutions proposed by the Fuheis Municipality in September 2017 before the then Minister of Public Works, and it followed up its issue with the Ministries of Works and Towns until the beginning of 2021 without positive results.

The reality of the professions licensing system, and the Ministry of Tourism’s issuance of approvals to establish tourist restaurants (and many of them, in clear violation of the licensing terms, turned into nightclubs during the past 15 years and the lack of the necessary infrastructure for them), exacerbated the traffic crises and the daily inconvenience for the comfort and life of citizens and disrupted traffic from And to Amman on a daily basis. This reality has become overwhelming citizens, and disrupts their access to jobs and places of work, and hundreds of students registered in the capital’s schools. And it formed a widespread rejection of the neighboring people due to the constant daily disturbances and disturbances of people’s comfort and their usual quiet rural lifestyle.

The former Fuheis Municipal Council put before the Ministry of Public Works and the Balqa Governorate Council options for traffic solutions in all directions. And he communicated continuously with the competent authorities to control traffic and violations of the terms of licenses for professions issued by the municipality, especially violations in tourist restaurants.

– Preliminary engineering studies were prepared by the engineering advisor to the Ministry of Public Works (Consultants Union cc) for a road lane linking the Umm Al-Naaj intersection with the baccalaureate intersection directly according to the proposals of the Fuheis Municipality, without the need to cross from the city center.

– And also the preparation of plans (the ring road on the borders of the lands of the cement factory) to connect Mahes with Al-Hashmiya Road directly. This is according to a comprehensive perspective to solve traffic problems through the city of Fuheis, and to find major transit crossings and arteries, linking the capital, Amman, with the Balqa Governorate.

These traffic solutions were also discussed with His Excellency the Mayor of Amman about a year ago, as the Amman Municipality is directly concerned with the proposed traffic solutions and their implementation in a manner that serves the traffic reality and enhances investment and development opportunities in the Balqa Governorate in general.

Fuheis pays the price daily because of the organizational failures that bear the responsibility of the relevant ministries, which are responsible first and foremost for the holistic planning of the main roads in force, the holistic planning of the cities, and the approval of the provisions of the regulation in their forms… and the development of systems and laws – studied – to prevent distortion, urban chaos, and random and uncontrolled expansion in construction Residential, ill-thought-out commercial regulation at the entrances to cities, including Fuheis… and the absence of controls in the professions licensing system for licensing types of professions licenses outside the population environment in cities (including some forms of tourist restaurants) in appreciation of the social reality in them.

– It is time to implement traffic solutions in Fuheis and Al-Balqa governorate so that we do not reach a stage and a bitter organizational reality (social, economic, investment, traffic) due to the historical randomness of the organization. It can be treated, and it will be a reason for the failure of any investment and development programs in the city of Fuheis and the Balqa governorate and its cities and valleys. And direct damage is difficult to estimate, for everyone who invested in commercial construction on the baccalaureate road.