Two new major traffic junctions on crucial Athens thoroughfares were inaugurated yesterday, and are expected to significantly reduce bottlenecks ahead of the August Olympics.

Officially opening the 14.94-million-euro Faros underpass, on Kifissias Avenue at Psychico, Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias promised to build one more major underpass a short distance further north on the same road, which provides the main link between central Athens and the northern suburbs.

“After the Olympic Games, we will build an underpass at Aghia Varvara,” he told journalists. “It is a necessary work, and will be built. But I believe that another underpass at Aghia Filothei would be superfluous.”

Souflias then proceeded to inaugurate the new Stavros underpass on Mesogeion Avenue at Aghia Paraskevi, at the main exit from the capital to the northeast, along which Marathon runners will pass during the Olympics on their way to the Panathenaic Stadium in the city center.

“This is a major work... in an area which used to be constantly congested,” he said.