It marked the beginning of an ambitious government project to link all the main cities on the island with modern four-lane highways.

[1] In the late 1970s, the Cypriot Government introduced a series of schemes to improve the infrastructure of transport on the Island.

The road was widened in preparation, but following the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus in July 1974 and the closure of the airport as a result, this scheme was abandoned.

Construction started on the A1 to connect Nicosia with the new main port of Cyprus at Limassol in 1978.

Although reconstruction at the Nicosia end has obliterated any evidence of this, drivers can still see the filter lanes at junction 17.