Construction work on Africa’s largest bridge is expected to start soon in the Laâyoune Sakia el-Hamra region. Indeed, the General Directorate of Roads under the Ministry of Equipment has just launched a new consultation on this project. The latter, which will be built on Oued Sakia el-Hamra, will extend over 1,724 meters and will be part of the Laayoune bypass, currently under construction.
The construction of this work was entrusted to Novec, a subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et de gestion. It will cost around 1.1 billion dirhams and will be linked to the Dakhla-Tiznit expressway, currently under construction. This infrastructure should have an inevitable impact on the attractiveness of the capital of the Sahara and will confirm its status as one of the largest cities in the Kingdom.
As a reminder, in 1995 and then in 2016, the city of Laayoune experienced heavy rainfall which not only caused damage to one of the largest dams in the region, but also cut the city off from the rest of the country for a time. It was there that a decision was taken to rebuild the Sakia el-Hamra dam, but above all to build a viaduct to ensure continuity of traffic, even in the most difficult conditions. This should now materialize, to offer road users a new infrastructure worthy of the best world standards.
In the meantime, work is continuing at a high pace on the dam, whose capacity should reach 1.2 million cubic meters of water. The envelope allocated to this project exceeds 433 million dirhams. Once the dam is completed, it will protect the city of Laâyoune from the risk of flooding, while strengthening the groundwater table in the region.