The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced in a statement published on December 16, 2016, it has lent Ivory Coast €769.78 million to build road infrastructures in Abidjan, the economic capital.

To be more specific, the project backed by the institution involves the construction of 87.9 km of expres ways, a bridge, six interchange roads and the rehabilitation of traffic lights at 89 junctions.

The bridge, a 1,400m-long infrastructure, which will cross an arm of the Ebrié lagoon that borders Abidjan, will link the Plateau (business and administrative centre) and Adjamé (major commercial hub) municipalities to Yopougon, which is Abidjan’s most populous municipality with two million residents.

The bridge and associated roads will facilitate daily movements of hundreds of thousands of poeple and unclog other roads. We believe more than 70,000 cars will use that route, said Jean Noël Ilboudo, Transport engineer in charge of the porject’s co-ordination at AfDB.

Construction works for the various infrastructures should start in March 2017 and end in December 2021.

Seaside town and sixth metroppolis in Africa, as well as West Africa’s economic lung, Abidjan has over the past few years been recording a significant demographic and economic growth which pressure its transportation network. Annual cost associated to transport-related issues (accident, clogging, atmospheric pollution, greenhouse effect, noise pollution) is estimated at 8% of national GDP.