The Salang tunnel, a key link in north-south road traffic, has been reopened for twelve hours a day. Reconstruction of the tunnel is about 70 percent complete, and with Winter setting in, without the tunnel, truck traffic is often impossible between Kabul and the north of the country. The tunnel was built by the Russians in 1964 and proved an enormous economic benefit as it cut transportation costs enormously throughout western Afghanistan. But for twenty years there was no maintenance and much damage.