City authorities in Rio de Janeiro began demolishing an elevated ring road skirting the city's port area on Monday as part of a huge makeover for the 2016 Olympic Games.
A 7km tunnel will replace a road carrying some 70,000 vehicles a day, which obscured the view to the picturesque vistas over Guanabara Bay and towards Sugarloaf Mountain.
The road was closed off on Saturday night in preparation as Rio undergoes urban regeneration ahead of the Games, the first to be staged in South America.
The closure is expected to lead to bottlenecks in a city of more than six million.
Transport minister Carlos Roberto Osorio warned a protest by port workers demanding a pay rise, coupled with a burst pipe in the area, would only add to the problem.
But, long term, the new access route is expected to allow a near doubling of traffic capacity while also reducing congestion.
Authorities were left scratching their heads last month when six huge steel columns, weighing 20 tonnes each, were stolen from an access road.
The ring road will be blasted on November 17.
Share
