Highways in Africa

[WNYroadgeek]

http://www.buffalonews.com/408/story/925226.html

[Chris]

There is A LOT going on in infrastructure development in Africa these days, mostly done by the Chinese. Algeria is building several long-distance toll roads, Senegal is building it's first Autoroute, Tunisia has a decent Autoroute network, Sudan is significantly improving it's roads, Ethiopia is building a ring road around Addis Abeba, Egypt has built many freeways, Libya has several freeways, and even countries like Nigeria and Cameroon have multilane long-distance highways.

[Bickendan]

and even countries like Nigeria ... have multilane long-distance highways.

Ah, so THAT's what those Nigerian scam emails finance! Well, now I'm more willing to help that prince transfer his millions into my account while he tries to find solace while on the lam!

[Chris]

Well, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. 150 million and growing fast, it's expected to exceed 290 million in 2050.

Lagos was a small city of 300,000 in 1950, but is currently home to 15,000,000 people and will grow to 25,000,000 people in 2015. Those are mind-boggling figures.

The worst African road network is in the DRC (former Zaire). It has a population of 69 million and 2,250 kilometers of paved road, only half of it in good condition.

[3467]

Is China doing it for Africa or for China?
I think DRC population is overestimate based on 1984 census but I didnt expect Nigeria to come in at 150 million
Ethiopia Strikes me as high at 69 million -Also no modern census
You can see Nigerias roads on Google Earth. They dont look to busy in Rural areas but none do outside US and Europe
Ghana is 19 million one of most prosporus. It could benefit

[Stephane Dumas]

There is A LOT going on in infrastructure development in Africa these days, mostly done by the Chinese. Algeria is building several long-distance toll roads, Senegal is building it's first Autoroute, Tunisia has a decent Autoroute network, Sudan is significantly improving it's roads, Ethiopia is building a ring road around Addis Abeba, Egypt has built many freeways, Libya has several freeways, and even countries like Nigeria and Cameroon have multilane long-distance highways.

Didn't South Africa got some freeways networks as well around Durban, Cape Town, Petroria and Johanesburg?

[yanksfan6129]

Yes: the freeway network in Gauteng (Johannesburg and Pretoria) is fairly well developed.

[Chris]

Yep, Johannesburg is also called the "Los Angeles of South Africa" due to it's skyscrapers and freeways.

[Chris]

Nigeria

Nigeria has one of the largest amounts of multilane highways in Africa, often called Expressways, although they usually only have limited access interchanges at major junctions. Slow and unmotorized traffic are seen often on these roads, and they also often lack proper road markings and signage. Illegal housing is often built within the right-of-way, which seems to be a major challenge for the government to rehabilitate existing expressways. It is also virtually impossible to find some regular signage photos on the internet.

Here are some of those multilane highways:

[Brandon]

^^^ Wow.  There seems to be a lack of signage of any type, and even the lane lines are missing at times.  Amazing pictures (as usual), Chris. 

[TheStranger]

^^^ Wow.  There seems to be a lack of signage of any type, and even the lane lines are missing at times.  Amazing pictures (as usual), Chris. 

With the lack of lane markings...how do drivers know where they're supposed to be on the carriageway?  Or is it a free-for-all?

[Brandon]

^^ My best guess is that traffic must be self-organizing to an extent.  I've seen this happen even when lines are painted on the road.  A two-lane street around here magically becomes a four-lane street when busy.  I'd guess they must do something similar.