The Rabat Ring Road or Rabat Bypass (official name ''Rocade de contournement de Rabat'') is a Moroccan expressway around the capital

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

.ADM with project details on th
Rabat Ringroad
, (French), visited 17 March 2012

Background

The road is constructed to relieve the city of Rabat and

Salé Salé (, ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, opposite the national capital Rabat, for which it serves as a commuter town. Along with some smaller nearby towns, Rabat and Salé form together a single m ...

from passing-through traffic. Like all Moroccan expressways the road is being constructed by the ADM or in full the

Société Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc The Société Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM) is Morocco's national authority for the management of over 1400+ km of Moroccan expressways. ADM is based in Rabat. ADM runs the network on a pay-per-use basis, with toll stations placed a ...

. This new by-pass will shorten traveling times for ongoing traffic between

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

and the North and it will also decrease the number of accidents as the Moroccan expressways have better safety records than local and national roads.ADM website o
Safety records
, visited 17 March 2012

The route

The new ring road will connect to the existing motorway from

in the South and finally connect to the existing A5 and A2 towards the North and North-East of the country.

Characteristics

The total length of the ring road will be 41,1 km: 36 km main-route and 5,1 km upgrade of existing roads. There will be 5 interchanges with other roads - one of them the junction with the A1 expressway from Casablanca. There will be one 'service area' with petrol-station, restaurant and a place for praying at KP26 (KP=kilometre numbering, so at 26 km from the start point). Other nearby service-points are at KP 27 of the Casablanca-Rabat expressway and at KP28 of Rabat-Kenitra expressway. Three bridges are being built over the

Bou Regreg The Bou Regreg () is a river located in western Morocco which discharges into the Atlantic Ocean between the cities of Rabat and Salé. The estuary of this river is termed Wadi Sala. The river is 240 kilometres long, with a tidal estuary of ap ...

, Yoem and Akkrach rivers or streams. Apart from that a total of 38 structures are projected: 14 overpasses, 16 underpasses, 5 road-tunnels (5×5 metre) and two pedestrian crossings. There will be one single toll-barrier. Some 15 million cubic metres (m³) of earth will be moved during the construction: 7 million m³ cuttings and 8 million m³ embankments.

Costs

The projected costs for this bypass 2762 million

dirhams The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivision in Jordan, Libya, Qatar and Tajikistan. It was historicall ...

without tax, averaging at 66,4 MDH/km. Construction began in 2011 and the motorway has been open since 2016.

Background

The route

Characteristics

Costs

Sources and references

See also