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

  • Ukraine, Poland ‘boast the most modernised infrastructure in eastern Europe’
    November 13, 2012
    Preparations for hosting the major sporting event, the Euro 2012 European football championship, enabled Ukraine and Poland to give their infrastructure the biggest facelift in the region and beyond. While three-quarters of Poland's expenditure was covered by EU funds, Ukraine financed the building of roads, hotels, and airports itself. Ukraine, however, did receive a EUR 2.2 billion loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). "The infrastructure sector will definitely remain one
  • Study shows Irish speed cameras provide five-fold benefit
    April 30, 2015
    Ireland’s mobile speed cameras have been shown to save lives and money but face a legal challenge. David Crawford reports. In 2011 the Republic of Ireland introduced mobile safety cameras on dangerous roads which have, according to the country’s first cost-benefit analysis of the technology, saved an average of 23 lives a year.
  • Toll plaza conversion will reduce congestion on I-95
    April 17, 2012
    In an effort to reduce congestion in a busy corridor for motorists and commercial freight carriers, Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) appointed TransCore as the lead integrator on a project to convert the Newark Toll Plaza on I-95, adding two new electronic highway speed lanes on both the north and south bound plazas. Plaza throughput is now about to jump from 250-300 transactions per lane per hour to an estimated 2,000. The US$32 million “shovel ready” project was fully funded through the Amer
  • Connected citizens boosts Boston’s traffic management
    March 30, 2017
    Data-derived traffic management is starting to show benefits as David Crawford discovers. The city of Boston has been facing growing congestion problems in its Seaport regeneration district, with the rate of commercial and residential growth threatening to overtake the capacity of the road network to respond.