Beijing opens new airport link to ease delays
BEIJING (Reuters) - Olympic host city Beijing opened a new highway to its international airport on Saturday, hoping to ease delays on a much-congested link ahead of the Games.
The airport had previously only been connected to downtown by one major road, which frequently slows to a snail's pace at busy times and has been known to flood during Beijing's summer thunderstorms, cutting off almost all access.
The new road leads from the recently opened Terminal Three and heads south, connecting with the ring roads surrounding the city and the highway to the nearby port city of Tianjin, the Beijing Evening News said.
A rail link to the airport is also expected to open soon. Beijing has spent billions of dollars ahead of the August 8 opening of the Games on improving infrastructure, including on a series of new subway lines.
This week authorities said they would introduce traffic restrictions for two months from July 20 to help tackle congestion and reduce pollution during the Olympics and Paralympics.
Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world and, with 3.5 million vehicles on the road, rapidly becoming one of the most congested.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard)
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