Written by Brian Burrell - Horizon Ethiopia Staff Writer
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
A Bole Road to Match its Reputation
As befits its status as the city's premier commercial district, getting from A to B on Bole Road can be quite a frustrating experience. Enter AACRA's plan to expand the thoroughfare in addition to building overpasses at its busiest intersections within 2 years time.
Traffic jams on detours to avoid road construction, the feel of a smooth ride on new asphalt, another report of a Chinese company being awarded a huge contract for a road in a hitherto isolated part of the country, and ever increasing accident rates; these are just some of the most noticeable aspects of Ethiopia’s huge push to build a modern road network.
Road development is probably the most visible change Addis and the country are undergoing, save for building construction. The numbers are impressive: 40% of the capital’s roads were erected or improved in the last 10 years since the Addis Ababa City Roads Authority (AACRA) was created and the third phase (2007-2010) of the Ethiopian Roads Authority’s (ERA) Road Sector Development will create more than 2,000km of new roads nationwide and probably eat up close to 30 billion Birr.
It is obvious that the government is putting forth huge efforts to ease the transport of goods and people across the almost 1.12 million square kilometers of Ethiopia. But the difficult questions remain: “Is it enough?” and “To what extent is it improving the lives of the people?”
Long Way From City "Master" Road Plan
Here in Addis the general mood of motorists seems to be acceptance of the necessity to drive the hodgepodge network rather than any embracement of the leisurely “Sunday cruise” along a tree-lined boulevard depicted in the car commercials. Between less than scrupulous driving habits, ineffective laws and enforcement and a downright disorganized system (see The Demise of Inikebaber), getting from A to B in Addis can be a headache. This is not to mention the less than accommodating public transport alternatives that often relegate upstanding citizens to an every person for themselves mentality when pushing for a spot in a minibus during rush hour (see Woes of Public Transport).
The Pushkin Square Project
The 'Big Dig' at Pushkin Square (Sar Betoch). An underpass is being built to connect the road to Mekanisa with that leading to Mexico Square. In the corner of this pic, one of the two remaining thatched structures which give the area its informal name, is just visible.
A Chinese contractor gestures to his crew. Despite saying that it would award more complex projects to local contractors, AACRA has rescinded its award of the Bole Road expansion contract to ENYI Construction in apparent favor of a foreign firm instead.
What the end product should look like upon completion.
All this chaos is largely the result of Addis’ sporadic and inconsistent growth in the past 100+ years that has left the space budgeted for roads in the city’s “master plan” for shanty town construction and lacking coordination between utility providers and the road authorities to divert huge sums to moving existing services when the roads finally do come.
Fekadu Haile, general manager of AACRA, says that this expensive process is not even the most prohibitive factor. “Lack of coordination with the 10 districts of the capital and numerous kebeles operating housing contrary to the master plan delay progress,” Fekadu told ACX explaining that the recently replaced city caretaker administration of the last two years has lacked the capacity to coordinate the various levels of government.
The around 40 construction locations around the city often involve huge demolitions of illegal settlements in the first phase and large compensation payments. These make up just a fraction of the almost 1.7 billion Birr budget and the push to increase road coverage to around 10%, still far from AACRA’s own goals and international standards of 25%. But Fekadu says expansion of road is not even the most important component of the projects. “We need to separate pedestrians and vehicles,” explains Fekadu who is overseeing the projects seeking to increase sidewalk coverage to 275km from the 75km that existed 10 years ago. “ACCRA also sees the progress of overpass and sidewalk barrier constructions as integral to improving traffic flow and safety.”
A new road in the Lebu area (adjacent to Lafto). Public transportation hasn't been extended here yet so you might see a garee or bajaj trying to fill the public's needs in the meantime.
Melbana Seifu, who recently returned to Ethiopia to run a family architecture and engineering consultancy after working as a transportation engineer and highway design in Maryland, agrees that expansion alone is not the answer.
“One targeted improvement to the city’s traffic flows would be more inlets for the minibuses like that found around the National Stadium,” says Melbana. “Simply by getting the taxis off the road for loading and unloading, the traffic flow will improve immensely.”
Faster, Riskier Roads
But efforts to make traffic move faster often have negative impacts on safety, especially for pedestrians who are involved in about 80% of accidents. Radio Fana’s morning traffic report unfortunately is more known for the accident component than the traffic update as motorists have few route choices and see little improvement in back-up alleviation.
With national auto-related deaths amounting to around 2,000, another 8,000 serious injuries, and 600 million Birr in property damage annually, there is a clear need to address the problem. But it is not so easy, as the solution is less obvious than other problems according to the World Health Organization which puts Africa’s road dangers just under HIV/AIDS on the list of dangers.
Ethiopia’s efforts to improve safety seem uncoordinated and infected by entrenched resistance. Kassahoun Hailemariam, Director at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, recently claimed that around two million license holders obtained them illegally. Drivers lacking proper education, no seatbelt culture or enforcement and a chaotic road network spell problems for Addis’ 600 traffic police who are more often seen doing the work of traffic lights either out of order for one reason or another than nabbing speeders. The prevalence of numerous draught beers being carried by a waiter out to a car’s driver is just one indicator of the big gap between law and practice that goes beyond intoxication.
While devoting resources to safety enforcement is a big deal, Melbana does appreciate the human touch to intersection regulation. “Because the timers on traffic lights are so out of sync with actual traffic patterns, the traffic police are more efficient in directing traffic,” Melbana told ACX.
National Progress From Slim Start
Nationally, it is obvious the government sees road development as integral to its Agricultural Development Led Industrialization strategy. Getting the goods to market efficiently is a huge task in this age of rising world food prices and inflation taking a toll on city dwellers. This thinking has spurred the plan for over 10,000km of new roads in the five-year Plan Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development Plan (PASDEP) that recently won a good practice award from the World Bank who has a $2.1 billion portfolio in here.
Yaregal Ayesheshum, President of the Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, is certainly appreciative of the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) efforts that have increased road coverage and access to his western district’s lush natural resources. With a population of 615,500 and land area of about 50,000sqkm, many investors are eyeing the bamboo and bio-fuel development opportunities there. “The smoothly paved road from Addis Ababa to the Assosa (687km) has aided in access to the large agriculture land availability and in the numerous mining activities,” Yaregal told ACX of the progress since companies like the National Mining Corporation and Asse Marble have started extraction.
Sebeta, which marks the beginning of this smoothly paved road that stretches all the way out to Jimma
In fact, improving the national road network is a critical part of increased agricultural output from Ethiopia’s existing farms and new ones to come spurred by the improving access to fertile areas of Ethiopia. Not only would such a network allow better access to inputs (such as fertilizer, seeds and the like) for the growing agricultural sector, it would also allow for better movement of the end products from where they’re grown to where they’re needed.
But ERA will have to make its around 12 billion Birr budget for the upcoming year go a long way as the country is still ranked 161st of 163 countries in paved roads per capita according to the CIA World Factbook. Moreover, the demand is not exactly colossal as World Bank Development Indicators show the country coming in 137th of 141 countries in vehicle abundance. This is fast changing though, and with about 11% annual traffic growth and a booming economy, Ethiopia is sure to see big changes coming.
Comments
(3)
mexico square written by anteneh tesfaye , December 31, 2008
mexico square looks good on picture, but, not sure how to regulate that trafic with little or no respect to each other ..above all those taxi mini vans aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh i wish we could find a way replace them with good German Mercedis busses, thats' (no Chines crappy busses)my dream i know we can not afford them ,but , it would not hurt to pray....
mexico square written by anteneh tesfaye , December 31, 2008
mexico square looks good on picture, but, not sure how to regulate that trafic with little or no respect to each other ..above all those taxi mini vans aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh i wish we could find a way replace them with good German Mercedis busses, thats' (no Chines crappy busses)my dream i know we can not afford them ,but , it would not hurt to pray....
Innovation and innovative solutions must come to Ethiopia through joint-venturing with International entrepreneurs interested in developing this land of great opportunity and culture. But, alas, Ethiopian officials are stuck in a bottle-neck of red-tape, financial restrictions, conventionalism, and unwelcoming attitude towards mega projects investors, and disrespect of time-management. But those who give-up on Ethiopia and its beautiful people, give-up on life in its best form. I'll keep on trucking.
