Port-Gentil-Omboué road which links Port-Gentil, the second-largest city and one of the most important ports and centers of the petroleum industry in the Central African country, with the capital, Libreville, and to the country’s main road network, has finally been delivered after approximately 6 years of construction.
Also Read: Gabon announces the start of construction of Transgabonaise road
The implementation of the 95 km long project begun in March 2014, a time that the seaport could only be reached or supplied by air or sea for there were no road links to the rest of the Central African country.
Implementation of the project
The road project was carried out by the China Bridge and Road Corporation (CBRC) under the supervision of GAUFF Engineering, a German infrastructure-development firm.
It involved the construction of a new road with a bituminous surface layer as well as the construction of two super bridges, one of which extends for 4.777 km while the second extends for 4.505 km. These bridges are now the first and second-largest bridges in the Central Africa region and the 3rd and 4th in the entire Africa African continent.
China’s Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) provided 95 percent of the total cost of the project while the government of Gabon through, road maintenance fund, under the state’s ministry of equipment, infrastructures, and public works.
The new road is expected to facilitate transport and commerce, and to lower the cost of both living and doing business in Port-Gentil. It is also expected to play a crucial role in the economic and tourist development of the entire Central African country.
