Ethiopia: Ethiopia Transportation Profile

Transportation infrastructure in Ethiopia has been neglected for decades, but is presently a priority of the government of Ethiopia. A large number of roads and railways are currently under construction, and will be completed between 2011 and 2014. Over a third of the funding for asphalt and gravel roads is being covered by the Ethiopian Government which is a considerable shift in recent years financial scheme. About 10 years back the International Development Agency, the European Union and Japan. had supported the finance by allocating about 90% required.

As the initial part of a 10-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 [1] the road density increased from 21 km per 1000 km2 (in 1995) to 889 km; per 1000 km2 (in 2009) however, this is much better than the average of 50 km per 1000 km2 for Africa.[3]

The Ethiopian government has begun second part of the Road Sector Development Program, which was completed in 2007. This will involve 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 reduce the proportion of the country area that is additional than 5 km from an all-weather road from 75% to 70%.[4]

As of 2006, Ethiopia only had one expressway—the Addis Ababa Ring Road. This is a four-lane limited-access divided highway, which forms a beltway around the capital. Some portions are still from presently on to be completed. The majority of its interchanges consist of roundabouts. Pedestrian bridges were constructed each kilometer, to reduce the risk of accidents. While not built to expressway standards, a lot of roads in Addis Ababa and other cities can be considered dual carriageways and have up to four lanes in each direction with hardly any intersections.

But the Ethiopian Roads Authority and China Communications Construction Consultancy is going to build a new six-lane expressway between Addis Ababa and Adama. The expressway will be 80 km long, will shorten the Addis to Adama distance by 20 km. To build this expressway will cost Ethiopia US$350 million. The expressway will begin at Ayat, Addis Ababa and end in north part of Adama. 150 km/h is the limited speed at the expressway, the journey will take about 30–40 minutes. The expressway will be completed in 2014

Ethiopia has spent over 600 billion birr (USD $50 billion, €30 billion) in infrastructure since 1990, according to the Ethiopian government.

    total (Regional and Federal): 101,359 km [1] (2009)
    asphalt: 90,336 km [1] (2009) (89% of the roads in Ethiopia is asphalt)
    gravel: 11,023 km [1] (2009) (11% of the roads in Ethiopia is gravel)
    maintained by Regional government: 86,580 km (2009)

Major roads include:

No 1: north from Addis Ababa 891 km via Dessie to Adigrat, from Dessie to Weldiya. Designated part of the Ndjamena-Djibouti Trans-African Highway 6 (TAH 6)
No 2: east from Dessie 482 km to Aseb. Designated part of the Ndjamena-Djibouti TAH 6
No 3: north from Addis Ababa across the Blue Nile at Dejen and again at Bahir Dar east around Lake Tana 979 km via Gondar and Aksum to Adwa. Designated part of the Cairo-Cape Town Trans-African Highway 4 (TAH 4) from Addis Ababa to Gondar, and part of TAH 6 from Wereta to Gondar
No 4: east from Addis Ababa 542 km via Dire Dawa to Jijiga
No 5: west from Addis Ababa 322 km to Nekemte
No 6: south from Addis Ababa 797 km via Shashamene to Moyale. Designated part of TAH 4;
No 7: south-west from Addis Ababa 336 km via Waliso (Ghion) and Jimma to Bonga
No 8: south from Nazret 193 km via Asella and Dodola to Mogadishu
No 18: north from Awash on No 4 305 km to Mille on No 2
No 30: south-east from Jijiga 696 km across the Ogaden to the Shabelle valley
No 43: south-west from Nekemte 226 km to Metu
No 44: south-east from Shashamene 308 km to Dolo Odo (Doolow)

Railways

681 km (Ethiopian segment of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway), all 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) narrow gauge (1902–2010)
 At present the railway is under joint control of Djibouti and Ethiopia, but negotiations are underway to privatize this transport utility.

 2 November 2006 - Ineco Spt of Spain was named the preferred choice for supervision and government of rehabilitation work on the 781 km Ethio-Djibouti Railway for €2.2 million. Consta - an Italian company - will undertake the actual reconstruction at a cost of €40 million (about R360m). Comazar of South Africa has been awarded the 25-year concession. Rails are to be upgraded from 20 kg/m to 40 kg/m, to carry substantially increased loads. A fleet of new locomotives and freight wagons will be brought in by the concessionaire.

 In 2008 a concrete sleeper plant was constructed in Dire Dawa.

In September 2009 Ethiopian Railways Corporation signed a transaction with China Railway Engineering Corporation for it to build the new Addis Ababa light railway transit