Skip to main content

Ethiopia’s first expressway nears completion

The Addis Ababa-Adama expressway in Ethiopia will be first expressway in Ethiopia and East Africa when complete and also the first toll road in the nation. It will connect the capital city Addis Ababa to Adama in Nazareth. Construction started in April 2010 and is scheduled to be complete in April 2014. The project is estimated to cost US$612 million and when complete the expressway will be able to accommodate 15,000 vehicles per day. The project is financed through a US$350 million loan from Export-Imp
April 14, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The Addis Ababa-Adama expressway in Ethiopia will be first expressway in Ethiopia and East Africa when complete and also the first toll road in the nation. It will connect the capital city Addis Ababa to Adama in Nazareth.

Construction started in April 2010 and is scheduled to be complete in April 2014. The project is estimated to cost US$612 million and when complete the expressway will be able to accommodate 15,000 vehicles per day.  The project is financed through a US$350 million loan from Export-Import (Exim) Bank, with the remaining US$262 million coming from the Ethiopian Government.

Constructed by Chinese Communications Construction Company (CCCC) on behalf of the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA), the new road uses advanced technologies such as a traffic management centre and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) for effective operation, together with overpasses, underpasses and interchanges. ITS technologies include traffic cameras and variable message signs (VMS) for effective traffic management and incident management.

Tolling is expected to be implemented on the Addis Ababa-Adama expressway, a first for Ethiopia. Toll gates will be installed at Addis Ababa and Adama, as well as at the six other interchanges. The toll road will reduce the travel time to around 40 minutes from the average two hours between Addis Ababa and Adama.

Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing nations in the world, but poor transportation facilities have become a bottleneck to the growth of agriculture in the country thereby affecting economic development. The Ethiopian Government has undertaken projects to improve the country's transportation network and plans to complete 64,000 kilometres of road network by 2015.

The existing Addis Ababa-Adama road carries 20,000 vehicles per day and is one of the busiest routes in the country. The road is heavily congested, which is causing frequent accidents. The new highway will help resolve these issues and contribute to fuel savings.

Related Content

  • Developer selected for Dallas Airport freeway project
    June 2, 2014
    Traffic relief is on the way for North Texas motorists who rely on SH 183, the airport freeway in Dallas and Tarrant counties. The Texas Transportation Commission has awarded a contract to Southgate Mobility Partners to develop much-needed improvements on up to 28 miles of roadway. Listed in the Texas Department of Transportation's 100 Most Congested Roadways, segments of SH 183 are used by nearly 170,000 vehicles daily.
  • Intersection collision avoidance system trial
    January 31, 2012
    Although much of the emphasis of research into intersection management has tended to concentrate on the needs of urban locations, there remain specific issues pertaining to rural intersections which need to be addressed. Here, Rebecca Szymkowski and Greg Helgeson, Wisconsin DOT, Todd Szymkowski, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Craig Shankwitz and Arvind Menon, University of Minnesota detail progress on an intersection collision avoidance system for more remote locations.
  • ITS Australia Global Summit 2023: super-sized
    December 2, 2022
    Four-day Global Summit will be held on 28-31 August, 2023 in Melbourne: accelerating smarter, safer, sustainable transport is focus of next year's expanded event for whole ITS community
  • Sign language reduces human error says Clearview
    September 26, 2019
    Wrong-way warning systems and advanced queue detection can help to reduce human error. They can also cut road accidents – and therefore road deaths, says Clearview Intelligence Where were nearly 1,800 deaths on the UK’s roads in 2018 – an average of five people dying each day. The largest single cause of serious injury is crashes at junctions (accounting for 33% of incidents), while the largest single cause of death was run-off road crashes (30%) “With vehicles increasingly being designed with saf