The construction of the road from Meskel Square to Bole Airport is closer to seeing the light of day after sitting on the drawing board for almost five years following the approval of a 60 million dollar loan by the Council of Ministers last week.

The loan, which is to be secured by the China Export Import (EXIM) bank and to be paid over 20 years, has been sent to Parliament for approval. While the approval is pending, the Addis Abeba City Roads Authority (AACRA) is making preparations for the construction that will start right after the approval.

Land demarcation and traffic management studies, so as not to affect the flow, are being conducted, according to Fekade Haile (Eng), manager of AACRA.

The construction of the road has seen a slew of problems since it was designed by Eng. Zewdie Eskinder & Co Plc for 610,000 Br towards the end of 2007. The construction was first awarded to Enyi Construction, a local company, in 2008. However, the board of directors of AACRA, chaired by Kuma Demeksa, mayor of Addis Abeba, cancelled the contract over concerns of the company’s capability in October of the same year.

The construction of the 4.3km long and 40-metre wide road was awarded to the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) Addis Engineering Plc, which had lost the bid to Enyi initially, in 2009. This did not see the construction commence as lack of how to finance the project put the plan in hiatus.

The cost of the project was deemed to have been too expensive, which was further complicated as the initial cost estimation which was in dollars, was affected by the devaluation of the Birr by 20pc in 2010 against a basket of major currencies. However, the Council had approved the loan for the construction as the planned completion year of 2013 fast approaches. Although the construction is to start two years later than the time CRBC had been given to finish it by, officials are pushing for the deadline to be the same.

This is a particularly important year for the country as it will be hosting the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the continental governing body, the African Union (AU), as Organization for African Unity (OAU). As the major artery of the city leading to the Bole International Airport, it is one that sees closure when VIPs pass, diverting traffic to other roads or bringing them to standstill.

The design for the road actually solves that, featuring underpasses on Olympia and Wollo Sefer and an overpass on the road from Rwanda to Mickeyleland. These are to manage the traffic flow at the Wollo Sefer and Olympia junctions, leaving a straight road to Bole Airport.

Traffic management is also a concern of the City Roads Authority and Eng. Zewdie Eskinder & Co, who will be supervising the construction.

Only one side of the road will be closed off during construction, with sidewalks on the open lane paved to widen the road to handle the traffic, according to Yared Mekonnen, Computer Aided Design (CAD) expert at the designer’s company.

“Other supplementary junctions will also be used to decrease the traffic load,” he told Fortune.

While he assures that this will not affect buildings, some fences might be demolished.

“Respective utility institutions have been communicated to dig out pipes, electricity lines and fibre optic cables and move them to future site of the sidewalks,” he told Fortune.

The designer expects moving of all utility lines along the road to take six months. However, the construction will be undertaken phase by phase, the first phase being the overpass at Olympia.


siurce: addisfortune.com