On the morning of August 24, a section of Tole Bi Street in Almaty was completely closed to traffic, leading to significantly worse congestion in the city center. Previously, drivers and bus passengers had to contend with single-lane traffic, but now the road is fully blocked, reports infohub.kz.
The LRT Almaty account had earlier announced that from 8:00 PM on August 22 to 8:00 AM on August 23, Tole Bi would be fully closed in two sections: from Nauryzbai Batyr Street to Zheltoksan Street, and from Zheltoksan Street to Abylai Khan Avenue. However, in the morning, residents found the street still closed. In comments under the post, a resident also noted that the parallel Karasai Batyr Street was closed along with Tole Bi.
In response to complaints, LRT representatives said they had contacted the contractor and promised to open the section by midday. During excavation, "unforeseen works" were discovered, causing the delay. As explained in the project, when working on utility networks, the street is usually closed in stages: first one direction is closed and reversible traffic is organized on the opposite lane, then work moves to the other side. If the street is too narrow, it is fully closed for one night to avoid daytime traffic jams and not disrupt bus movement.
"Only for heating networks (there are not many) might work take a couple of days," they wrote in response to the complaint.
According to Almaty Joly, similar works had already been carried out on the section from Nauryzbai Batyr Street to Seifullin Avenue: it was closed from 11:00 PM to 6:00 AM on August 21 and 22.
In the 2GIS service, users still report closures, and Tole Bi and parallel streets are marked in burgundy. Almaty residents who travel on this street daily can only hope for the completion of works in 2027.