Roads in Ethiopia
Transport in Ethiopia is overseen by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Over the last years, the Ethiopian federal authorities have significantly increased funding for rail and road construction to build an infrastructure, that allows better economic development.
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Road projects now represent around a quarter of the annual infrastructure budget of the Ethiopian federal government. Additionally, through the Road Sector Development Program (RSDP), the government has earmarked $4 billion to construct, repair and upgrade roads over the next decade.[1]
As the first part of a 10-year to 15 year Road Sector Development Program, between 1997 and 2002 the Ethiopian government began a sustained effort to improve its infrastructure of roads. As a result, as of 2002 Ethiopia has a total (federal and regional) 33,297 km of roads, both paved and gravel. The share of federally managed roads in good quality improved from 14% in 1995 to 31% in 2002 as a result of this program, and to 89% in 2009[2] the road density increased from 21 km per 1000 km2 (in 1995) to 889 per 1000 km2 (in 2009) however, this is much greater than the average of 50 km per 1000 km2 for Africa.[3]
The Ethiopian government had begun the second part of the Road Sector Development Program, which was completed in 2007. This had involved the upgrading or construction of over 7,500 km of roads, with the goal of improving the average road density for Ethiopia to 35 km per 1000 km2, and reducing the proportion of the country area that is more than 5 km from an all-weather road from 75% to 70%.[4]
In 2024, the Ministry of Transport and Communications announced that they will ban combustion engined vehicle imports.[5] As of February 2024, the date and details of the ban have not been released.
According to the Government of Ethiopia, it has spent over 600 billion birr (US$50 billion, €30 billion) on infrastructure since 1990.
- total (regional and federal): 144,391 km[2] (2009)
- asphalt: 120,381 km[2] (2009) (89% of the roads in Ethiopia are asphalt)
- gravel: 11,023 km[2] (2009) (11% of the roads in Ethiopia are gravel)
- maintained by Regional government: 86,580 km (2009)
Major roads include:
No 1: north east from Addis Ababa 853 km via Adama and Awash to Bure on Eritrean border
No 2: north from Addis Ababa 1071 km via Dessie, Mek'ele and Adigrat to Axum
No 3: north west from Addis Ababa across the Blue Nile at Dejen and again at Bahir Dar east around Lake Tana 737 km to Gondar. Designated part of the Cairo-Cape Town Trans-African Highway 4 (TAH 4)
No 4: west from Addis Ababa 445 km via Nekemte to Gimbi
No 5: west from Addis Ababa 510 km via Jimma to Metu
No 6: south west from Jimma 216 km to Mizan Teferi
No 7: south from Mojo 432 km via Shashamane and Sodo to Arba Minch. Part of road between Mojo and Shashamane is designated part of the Cairo-Cape Town Trans-African Highway 4 (TAH 4)
No 8: south from Shashamane 214 km via Awasa to Hagere Mariam. Designated part of the Cairo-Cape Town Trans-African Highway 4 (TAH 4)
No 9: south from Adama 77 km to Asella
No 10: east from Awash 572 km via Harar and Jijiga to Degehabur
Expressways
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The Addis Ababa–Adama Expressway was completed in 2014 as the first expressway in Ethiopia. In December 2015, construction began on a second expressway between Awasa and Mojo, where it will connect to the existing expressway.[6]
In addition, the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) has undertaken a three-year project to upgrade over 370 km of roads in the country. Contracts have been signed with the Ethiopian Defense Construction, China Railway Engineering, Eney Construction, China Wuyi, Yotek Construction and FAL General Contractor.[7][8]
Dangers of vehicular transport
It is said that Ethiopia has the highest rates of traffic fatalities per vehicle in the world. This is due to many factors. For example, the roads are poorly maintained, lightened and marked; which are major factors in road accidents. Another major factor is the people themselves, who ignore the rules of the road. Their disregard of road safety puts every other driver at risk. Due to this, foreigners are advised to keep a safe distance from the car in front of them because the driving is unpredictable; anything can happen in the blink of an eye. Even the surroundings involving transport can be incredibly dangerous. For example, there are instances when carjackings and robberies occur on highways or streets that are away from the public eye. Due to this, people are forced to be highly alert of their surroundings, such as checking to make sure no one is lurking around their vehicle before entering and avoiding nighttime travel.[9]
References
- ^ "Infrastructure". Government of Ethiopia. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
- ^ a b c d Malone, Barry (28 October 2009). "Ethiopia earmarks almost $1 billion for roads". reuters.com. Archived from the original on 31 October 2009.
- ^ "Ethiopia - Second Road Sector Development Program Project", p.3 (World Bank Project Appraisal Document, 19 May 2003)
- ^ World Bank, "Second Road Sector", p.11
- ^ Shahan, Zachary (2024-02-07). "Ethiopia Banning Non-Electric Car Imports". CleanTechnica. Retrieved 2024-02-12.
- ^ "$700m Ethiopian highway gets started after four-year search for funding". Global Construction Review. 18 December 2015.
- ^ Yohannes, Frehiwot (2017-02-02). "Ethiopia: Road Projects Expanding, Authority Awards Billions". Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa). Retrieved 2017-02-14.
- ^ "Search".
- ^ "Working Together to Protect U.S. Organizations Overseas".
Further reading
- "Chapter 8: Transport and Communications" in Richard Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia (1800–1935) (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968).
External links
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.