Length and condition The length of the route is of which 83% or has been paved according to
African Union (AU) documents, There are about 9 unpaved sections, but some paved sections require reconstruction. All are two-lane highways with the exception of short four-lane highways in the eastern third of the route. The ADB reports published in 2003 say that 32% of the highway is in poor condition, 9% is good and 59% is fair. Reconstruction of the segment in
Lagos, Nigeria began in 2010, and when it is complete that section will be ten lanes wide.
Managing authorities The highway is a project of ECOWAS and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) of the AU, with funding from the
African Development Bank. The route is Trans Africa Highway No. 7 (TAH7) in the International Road Federation's list of nine highways which it regards as priorities for a Trans-Africa Highway network.
Route The cities and countries served, and status of the road are as follows. Please note that a paved alternate route Dakar-Bamako-Abidjan (shown in black on map) is more practical. Information about construction required is from two sources: the ECOWAS website, undated document, and the ADB website, consultancy report date August 2003. Note: 'spur' indicates the city is on a spur off the main alignment of the highway, 'existing' could mean a pre-existing national road has been adopted for the route or a section has been newly constructed. •
Nouakchott,
Mauritania – existing to: •
Dakar (spur),
Senegal – existing, to: •
Banjul,
The Gambia – existing, some sections with pavement missing, through The Gambia then southern Senegal to: •
Bissau,
Guinea-Bissau – existing to
Quebo, with a short new section required to the Guinea border where a major bridge over the Kogon River was planned for construction to start in 2004; • a new 89 km (55 mi) section in
Guinea is needed from the border to
Boké; • in Guinea, Boké to
Conakry (spur) and the Sierra Leone border is existing; • in
Sierra Leone reconstruction has been completed, there is a new bridge over the Moa River to Zimmi, continuing to the Liberian border; • in
Liberia, the section though
Monrovia inland to
Ganta is existing, with a new section required of about , Ganta-
Sanniquellie-
Kahnple-Côte d'Ivoire border; • in
Côte d'Ivoire a new section is needed from the Liberian border through to
Danané, while the road from there through
Man,
Yamoussoukro and
Abidjan to the Ghanaian border is complete: • in
Ghana the road is existing through
Cape Coast and
Accra to the border with
Togo, and east from
Akatsi to Dzodze has been replaced by a new road parallel to the old; • the through Togo has been replaced by a new road by-passing
Lomé on the north side; • the
Benin section through
Cotonou and
Porto Novo is existing to the Nigerian border: • about from the border to
Lagos,
Nigeria is existing.
Notes • Between Monrovia and Abidjan the highway departs from the coastal route and goes as much as inland. Originally it was planned to follow the coast, and to this end Côte d'Ivoire built a paved road west of Abidjan along its coast to
Tabou, near the Liberian border. However Liberia did not build any paved highways along its coast to Monrovia, and later adopted the inland route. • The eastern third of the route spanning Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin to Lagos is the longest existing section and probably the oldest, and the most used by traffic, to the extent that it became worn out and congested, leading to the need to construct new parallel by-passes along sections in Togo and in south-eastern Ghana. • The longest sections of earth roads needing to be paved, or missing entirely, are in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the last two both still recovering from years of
civil war.
Feeder roads and other transnational highways Bamako, Mali and
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (the two landlocked countries of ECOWAS) are already linked to the coastal highway by paved highways to Abidjan, Accra and Lomé. Lagos is linked via the largest network of paved highways in West Africa, the national road network of Nigeria, with links to the neighbouring countries of
Niger,
Chad and
Cameroon. The
Trans-Sahelian Highway is another ECOWAS project running parallel to the coastal highway linking the
Sahelian countries of West Africa from Dakar to
Ndjamena,
Chad. Two other transnational roads are also under development from Lagos to link to the Trans–West African Coastal Highway: • to
Algiers,
Algeria, most of which is already paved. • , which still requires a long paved section through the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Trans–West African Coastal Highway could then be regarded as the western end of a route spanning the continent from its western extremity virtually to its eastern extremity for a total distance of . ==See also==