Autoroutes of Morocco

Morocco's network of Motorways is administered by the state-owned company Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM). It runs the network on a pay-per-use basis, with toll stations placed along its length. The general speed-limit is 120 km/h.

Map of Moroccan highways and expressways
Tollgates of 1st expressway in Morocco

History

The first expressway in the country is the A1 Casablanca-Rabat. Construction of the first section started in 1975 but completion of this road between the economic and the administrative capital took 13 years. Originally usage of the road was free of charge. The toll-road system was later introduced as one measure to prevent lengthy construction times (as happened with this first road). Finding investors for new roads would be easier when these roads would generate their own revenue to repay investors.[1]

Realized

In 2006, it was announced that ADM will be investing 6.18 billion dirhams ($859 million) to develop its highway network in 2007.[2] These investment packages are part of the objective that aim to complete 1,500 km by 2012.

As of August 2016, ADM manages 1808 km[3] of Morocco's toll roads.[4] As of November 2016 the total length of Morocco's motorways is 1,808 kilometres (paid) and 1,093 kilometres (free) expressways[5].

Planned

The Kingdom of Morocco is planning investments of around €23 billion in road construction until 2035. The Moroccan government has announced that more than 5,500 kilometres of new highways and expressways are to be constructed with investment totalling €8.8 billion. This includes 700 km of 3x2 roads that will be constructed.

Also 45,000 km of new rural roads will be created in rural areas and the modernization of 7,000 km of rural roads. It is part of new plan of the Moroccan Ministry of Transport, which will invest 660 billion dirhams in the transport and logistics sector.

Completed roads
Section of Fes-Oujda expressway just before opening in July 2011
Viaduct of the Fes-Oujda expressway just before opening in July 2011

The main Moroccan expressways are:

The construction history of these expressways by segment is as follows:[6][7]

Moroccan Expressways
from to length
in km		 construction
period		 avg costs
MDH/km		 notes
CasablancaRabat62forming the A3 motorway
using: CasablancaOued Cherrat33,51975–1978
and: Oued CherratRabat25.51983–1987
RabatLarache15013
using:RabatKénitra401993–1995
and:KénitraLarache1101993–1996
LaracheSidi El yamani281996–1999
Sidi El yamaniAsilah152000–2002
AsilahTanger302002–2005
together forming the A1 Rabat-Tangier expressway
RabatFès16714.4
usingRabatKhemiset661996–1999
andFesKhemiset1161995–1998
CasablancaSettat571998–200117.5
Casablanca bypass272000–200425built in two phases
CasablancaSafi255.5
usingCasablancaHad Soualem162001–200418
andHad SoualemTnine Chtouka352002–200520
andTnine ChtoukaEl Jadida282004–200626
andEl JadidaSafi1432012–201630
SettatMarrakesh1622004–2007
Tanger-Med connector542004–200873
TétouanFnideq282004–200836last 11 km opened 21-07-08

Road safety

In 2007 762 accidents with casualties were reported, a 5% increase on 2006. The accident-rate per 100 million traveled kilometers dropped by 20% from 30.2 to 24.1 between these years, but the total number as well as rate of deaths didn't go down.

A breakdown of these figures:[8]

Moroccan Expressways Safety
Type accident 2006 2007 % change notes
serious accidents 726 762 +5% is accident with serious inj. or deaths
rate per 100 mln km. 30,2 24.1 -20%
fatal accidents 74 86 +16% is accident with at least one death
rate per 100 mln km. 3,1 2,7 -12%
serious injuries 480 535 +11%
is per 100 mln km. 20,0 16,9 -15%
deaths 90 127 +41%
is per 100 mln km. 3,7 4,0 +7%

Increasing road-safety

Increasing safety is an important goal for the ADM: the new autoroutes are designed to improve safety and the ADM also believes that extending the express-way network will increase overall safety as the through-going (and often high-speed) traffic is moved away from the Route Nationals, that run through the cities and villages along the way. Expressways also use non-level crossings and because there is no oncoming traffic overtaking cars is safer than on normal roads. The ADM also publishes accident figures to increase the attention of the public in road-safety.[9]

In the first quarter of 2011 the number of accidents on expressways with injuries fell 21% compared to the same period in 2010[10]

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See also

References and notes
  1. Website of ADM about its history Archived 2008-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, visited 4 August 2008.
  2. "Morocco strengthens infrastructural development". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2006.
  3. (in French)Moroccan infrastructures
  4. Overview main development figures on ADM site, visited september 2010.
  5. "Les voies express". Archived from the original on 2018-01-20. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  6. Data obtained from key dates Archived 2012-03-07 at the Wayback Machine
  7. development program Archived 2008-08-18 at the Wayback Machine on ADM site as of 4 August 2008
  8. Official safety figures Archived 2012-03-08 at the Wayback Machine as reported by ADM, visited 3 August 2008
  9. ADM Website Detailed report on road-safety on expressways Archived 2011-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, PDF (French), retrieved 27 June 2011
  10. Newsarticle on ADM website 21% decrease in traffic accidents on motorways in Q1 2011 Archived 2011-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, visited 27 June 2011

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