AddisAbeba Transport Bureau has awarded a French company, Safege Sas and its local partners a 64.7 million Br project comprising consulting, design and construction supervision of its Bus Rapid Transit project (BRT).
The company’s representative, Luc Ponchon, project manager and Fekadu Haile (Eng.), general manager of Addis Abeba City Roads Authority signed the contract on March 16, 2016, at the Authority’s premises on Roosevelt Street. Two local companies accompany Safege: the Ethiopian Hammda Engineering Consult Plc and the British Integrated Transport Planning Ltd.
For a 16km stretch of road starting from the Pasteur Institute to Jemmo condominiums, this project will see a fully dedicated right of way (busway) introduced between the two regular rights of way. This will prioritize public transportation by decreasing the pressure of traffic congestion caused by public vehicles.
This is part of the city’s effort to transform the transport system into one dominated by mass transportation, Asmare, head of BRT project told Fortune, as is the city’s transportation goal for the next few years.
Bus Rapid Transit is one way it aims to do so, having found that it is more cost effective compared to the newly implemented mass transport Light Railway Transit (LRT). The aforementioned study found that BRT fares can be four per cent to 20pc cheaper than LRT fares and 10pc to 100pc cheaper when compared with fares collected for the metro bus.
The idea was first tabled years back, the feasibility study and proposal for the lanes were done by Egis Rail and Lyon Town Planning Agency (LTPA), which was hired as a consultant in 2005, and presented in October 2010.
There were two phases to the project and were scheduled for implementation in mid-2011 and 2013. By 2010, AACRA had commissioned as well as received preliminary studies and design from the Indian and a local firm, Beza Consulting Engineers Plc.
However, once funding was secured from the French government, things had to change.
“The older designs had to be changed because the financiers did not accept it,” Fekadu Haile (Eng), general manager of the Addis Abeba City Roads Authority (AACRA). “They insisted that it had to be re-done.”
Ethiopia had secured a 50 million euro loan from the French government via its development agency, Agencé France de Development (AFD) in April of last year. Additional 35 million euro is already on pipeline, sourced from the same agency.
One year ago, thirteen international companies had expressed their interest in participating in what will be the country’s first such undertaking. By the time financing was secured, six of those had submitted offers. Of the six, two French companies managed to pass to both technical and financial evaluation before the winner was selected.
Safege will be designing Ethiopia’s first BRT line, now dubbed the B2 corridor, which will service the western half of the city. B2 will pass through five districts: Addis Ketema, Niafs Silk, Kirkos, Gullele and Lideta districts, linking such places as Pasteur, Wingate, Autobus Tera (the bus station in AddisKetema District), Kera, Gofa Gabriel and Jemmo condominium sites.
Forty per cent of the privatly owned and 52pc of the federal public transport in the city – over 5,500 vehicles, give service in these districts.
The route was chosen because of the significant number of both primary and secondary schools and health centres within those areas. A higher traffic rate has been observed through preliminary studies. Two of the districts it serves, Addis Ketema and Lideta, have the highest population density.
Half of the route, from Gofa Gabriel to Autobus Tera will be totally rebuilt, with left and right lanes designated to passenger vehicles, while the middle lanes will be reserved for the BRT. The whole line will have width ranging from 20m – 40m according to the preliminary and operational feasibility done by an Indian firm called DMTS.
These new lines will be developed parallel to the existing transport system, with the lanes being built within existing roads, whereas the remaining section of BRT will see minor adjustments, such as preparing lanes and building stations. As per recommendations of the study, this corridor will have 17 stations built on the existing roads. The B2 corridor will also accommodate seven open public spaces.
The BRT project will be implemented and regulated by the Addis Abeba City Roads Authority (AACRA) in conjunction with the Transport Management Office. The project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2018, is expected to serve 2,700 passengers per hour in each direction. The Authority intends to serve this large customer base via electronic cards that will be issued for the payment system.
In order to manage and control the transit, a centre will also be built at the Anbessa bus depot in Mekanisa. This Centre will monitor and computerize the rapid buses. The buses for this project are now being assembled by the Metal Engineering Corporation (MetEC).
Six other corridors have already been identified, said Meteku.
For these projects further study will be done. Their finance source is yet to be found but two of the six will be built in the next five years.
Safege has proposed to finish the design work within eight months and preparation of the bidding document and hiring a contractor within five months. In total, it will take 26 months to complete the construction work of B2 corridor.
Safege Sas, is operated by an umbrella company called Suez Environment, which provides environmental consulting and engineering services in France and internationally. It offers services in the areas of environment and waste, urban development and transport, among others; pre-project study, project and programme management, design and construction supervision. It was founded in 1919 and is based in Nanterre, France. It has branch offices in various countries around the world including two in North Africa.
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