Autoroutes of Morocco

Morocco's network of motorways is administered by the state-owned company Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM). It runs the network on a pay-per-use basis, with toll stations placed along its length. The general speed limit is 120 km/h.

Map of Moroccan highways and expressways

Casablanca-Rabat expressway (A1) going northbound near Temara

History

The first expressway in the country was the A1 Casablanca-Rabat. Construction of the first section started in 1975. Completion of this road between the economic and the administrative capitals took 13 years. Originally, use of the road was free of charge. The toll-road system was introduced as one measure to prevent lengthy construction times, as happened with this first road. Finding investors for new roads would be easier if these roads generated their own revenue to repay investors.^[1]

Realized

In 2006, it was announced that ADM would be investing 6.18 billion dirhams ($859 million) to develop its highway network in 2007.^[2] These investment packages were part of the objective that aimed to complete 1,500 km by 2012.

As of August 2016, ADM managed 1808 km^[3] of Morocco's toll roads.^[4] As of November 2016 the total length of Morocco's motorways is 1,808 kilometres (paid) and 1,093 kilometres (free) expressways.^[5]

Planned

The Kingdom of Morocco is planning investments of around €23 billion in road construction until 2035. The Moroccan government has announced that more than 5,500 kilometres of new highways and expressways are to be constructed with investment totalling €8.8 billion. This includes 700 km of 3x2 roads that will be constructed.

Also 45,000 km of new rural roads will be created in rural areas and the modernization of 7,000 km of rural roads. It is part of new plan of the Moroccan Ministry of Transport, which will invest 660 billion dirhams in the transport and logistics sector.

Completed roads

Section of Fes-Oujda expressway just before opening in July 2011

Viaduct of the Fes-Oujda expressway just before opening in July 2011

The main Moroccan expressways are:

• Rabat Ring Road (42 km)
• A1 Casablanca-Rabat (86 km)
• A1 Casablanca–Safi (255 km)
• A2 Rabat-Fes (190 km)
• A2 Fes-Oujda (306 km)
• A3 Casablanca-Marrakesh (220 km)
• A3 extension to Agadir (233 km)
• A4 Berrechid-Benni Mellal (172 km)
• A5 Rabat-Tangier Med (308 km)
• A7 Tetouan-Fnideq (28 km)

The construction history of these expressways by segment is as follows:^[6][7]

Moroccan Expressways

	from		to	length in km	construction period	avg costs MDH/km	notes
Casablanca			Rabat	62	forming the A3 motorway
	using:	Casablanca	Oued Cherrat	33,5	1975–1978
	and:	Oued Cherrat	Rabat	25.5	1983–1987
Rabat			Larache	150		13
	using:	Rabat	Kénitra	40	1993–1995
	and:	Kénitra	Larache	110	1993–1996
Larache			Sidi El yamani	28	1996–1999
Sidi El yamani			Asilah	15	2000–2002
Asilah			Tanger	30	2002–2005
		together forming the A1 Rabat-Tangier expressway
Rabat			Fès	167		14.4
	using	Rabat	Khemiset	66	1996–1999
	and	Fes	Khemiset	116	1995–1998
Casablanca			Settat	57	1998–2001	17.5
Casablanca bypass				27	2000–2004	25	built in two phases
Casablanca			Safi	255.5
	using	Casablanca	Had Soualem	16	2001–2004	18
	and	Had Soualem	Tnine Chtouka	35	2002–2005	20
	and	Tnine Chtouka	El Jadida	28	2004–2006	26
	and	El Jadida	Safi	143	2012–2016	30
Settat			Marrakesh	162	2004–2007
Tanger-Med connector				54	2004–2008	73
Tétouan			Fnideq	28	2004–2008	36	last 11 km opened 21-07-08

Road safety

In 2007 762 accidents with casualties were reported, a 5% increase on 2006. The accident-rate per 100 million traveled kilometers dropped by 20% from 30.2 to 24.1 between these years, but the total number as well as rate of deaths didn't go down.

A breakdown of these figures:^[8]

Moroccan Expressways Safety

Type accident		2006	2007	% change	notes
serious accidents		726	762	+5%	is accident with serious inj. or deaths
	rate per 100 mln km.	30,2	24.1	-20%
fatal accidents		74	86	+16%	is accident with at least one death
	rate per 100 mln km.	3,1	2,7	-12%
serious injuries		480	535	+11%
	is per 100 mln km.	20,0	16,9	-15%
deaths		90	127	+41%
	is per 100 mln km.	3,7	4,0	+7%

Increasing road-safety

Increasing safety is an important goal for the ADM: the new autoroutes are designed to improve safety and the ADM also believes that extending the express-way network will increase overall safety as the through-going (and often high-speed) traffic is moved away from the Route Nationals, that run through the cities and villages along the way. Expressways also use non-level crossings and because there is no oncoming traffic overtaking cars is safer than on normal roads. The ADM also publishes accident figures to increase the attention of the public in road-safety.^[9]

In the first quarter of 2011 the number of accidents on expressways with injuries fell 21% compared to the same period in 2010^[10]

See also

• List of roads and highways
• List of toll roads
• Société Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc

References and notes

1. "Histoire de l'autoroute au Maroc" (in French). ADM. Archived from the original on 1 August 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2008.
2. "Morocco strengthens infrastructural development". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2006.
3. (in French)Moroccan infrastructures
4. Overview main development figures on ADM site, visited september 2010.
5. "Les voies express". Archived from the original on 2018-01-20. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
6. Data obtained from key dates Archived 2012-03-07 at the Wayback Machine
7. development program Archived 2008-08-18 at the Wayback Machine on ADM site as of 4 August 2008
8. Official safety figures Archived 2012-03-08 at the Wayback Machine as reported by ADM, visited 3 August 2008
9. ADM Website Detailed report on road-safety on expressways Archived 2011-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, PDF (French), retrieved 27 June 2011
10. Newsarticle on ADM website 21% decrease in traffic accidents on motorways in Q1 2011 Archived 2011-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, visited 27 June 2011

External links

Media related to Autoroutes in Morocco at Wikimedia Commons