By Akanimo Sampson
Head of Infrastructures Department of Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Works, Benoît Parfait Mbole Mbole, has said that the first phase of the Yaoundé-Douala Road project is expected to be commissioned by January 2022 at the latest.
Mbole made the revelation during his site visit to assess the works on this section of the project which according to the control mission made up of Scet-Tunisie (a development consulting firm), and Louis-Berger, (full-service engineering, architecture, planning, environmental, program, and construction management, and economic development firm), is 98% completed.
Works in the framework of the first phase of the 196-km Yaoundé-Douala highway infrastructure started in October 2014 with its completion set for 48 months.
However, the deadlines were first extended by 12 months from October 2018 to October 2018 and again by 14.5 months from October 2019 to December 2020 and now from December 2020 to October 2021.
According to the project contractor, China First Highway Engineering, the latest delay was mainly as a result of delays in the clearance of rights-of-ways for the project and bill payments and partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the difficulties encountered during the demolition of rocky masses along the KP 40 and KP 60 and during the construction of earthworks on this same route.
The project mainly involves the construction of a 60-kilometer 2 x 2-lane freeway, extendable to 3 lanes, from kilometer point 0 to the Bibodi interchange. It also involves the construction of two access roads over a 25-km route.
The first access road is a 10-km (2 X 2 lanes) structure through which users can reach KP 00 of the highway from the central post office located at the center of Yaoundé, while the second one will be 13 km long from Bibodi (KP 60) to National Road No. 3 at Boumnyebel.
Other works include the building of functional infrastructure such as tolls, weighing stations, rest and service areas as well as emergency lanes.
