Pireos Street
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Pireos Street is a main road linking Athens and Piraeus. From downtown Athens since the 1970s, it is bypassed by Andreas Syngrou and a smal highway southward. It aligns nearly to the northeast from southwest while it does align directly in downtown Athens. Its length is 10 km running nearly 1 km from the centre of Piraeus by the short Athinon-Peiraios Avenue and up to the Omonoia Square near Athens' city hall. Major intersections and an interchange include the Karaoli Dimitriou Street, the Kifissou Avenue in which the Kifissos River runs in the middle, the Konstantinopouleos Avenue junction, Apostolou Pavlou with Vasileiou tou Megalou, Ermou, Thermopylon, Sofokleous, Deligiorgi and Sokratous Streets. The island part of the road are aligned with trees. Historically the avenue runs over parts of the north wall and parts from the ancient road of Phaleron.
[edit] History
The road was first widened in the mid-20th century. Lampposts were on each side of the road but in the 1990s and early-2000s, they were removed and new taller lampposts were placed in the island of the road. Between 2000 and 2001, the extension and conversion from main highway to superhighway begun as an interchange was added. During construction as the overpass above the river was added, flooding in July, September and October of 2002, the avenue was closed due to flooding of the Kifissos by special metal gates which prevented flooding of buildings and Pireos Street as well. This was the last flooding, after the water becan to flow underneath the overpass. Construction continued later and the road runs underneath Kifissou Avenue. Prior to construction, the main road of Kifissou ended at this road, residential traffic were allowed south of Pireos.
