WikiProject Trans-African Highway
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East-west routes
Network : 3145382
3145382
- Trans-African Highway 1 (TAH 1), 301621 301621 Cairo-Dakar Highway, 8636 km: a mainly coastal route along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, continuing down the Atlantic coast of North-West Africa, substantially complete. TAH 1 joins with TAH 7 to form an additional north-south route around the western extremity of the continent.
- Trans-African Highway 5 (TAH 5), 301624 301624 Dakar-Ndjamena Highway, 4496 km, also known as the Trans-Sahelian Highway, linking West African countries of the Sahel, about 80% complete.
- Trans-African Highway 6 (TAH 6), 301628 301628 Ndjamena-Djibouti Highway, 4219 km: contiguous with TAH 5, continuing through the eastern Sahelian region to Indian Ocean port of Djibouti. The approximate route of TAH 5 and TAH 6 was originally proposed in the early 20th century as an aim of the French Empire.
- Trans-African Highway 7 (TAH 7), 301631 301631 Dakar-Lagos Highway, 4010 km: also known as the Trans-West African Coastal Road, about 80% complete. This highway joins with TAH 1 to form an additional north-south route around the western extremity of the continent.
- Trans-African Highway 8 (TAH 8), 301633 301633 Lagos-Mombasa Highway, 6259 km: which is contiguous with TAH7 and forms with it a 10,269-km east-west crossing of the continent. The Lagos–Mombasa Highway's eastern half is complete through Kenya and Uganda, where locally it is known as the Trans-Africa Highway (the only place where the name is in common use),. Its western extremity in Nigeria, Cameroon and Central African Republic is mostly complete but a long missing link across DR Congo currently prevents any practical use through the middle section.
- Trans-African Highway 9 (TAH 9), 301636 301636 Beira-Lobito Highway, 3523 km: substantially complete except in the eastern half but the western half through Angola and south-central DR Congo requires reconstruction.
North-south routes
Starting with the most westerly, these are:
- Trans-African Highway 2 (TAH 2), 301620 301620 Algiers–Lagos Highway, 4504 km: also known as the Trans-Sahara Highway: substantially complete, only 200 km of desert track remains to be paved, but border and security controls restrict usage.
- Trans-African Highway 3 (TAH 3), 301638 301638 Tripoli–Windhoek–(Cape Town) Highway, 10,808 km: this route has the most missing links and requires the most new construction, as only national paved roads in Libya, Cameroon, Angola, Namibia and South Africa can be used to any extent. South Africa was not originally included, as the highway was first planned in the Apartheid era, but it is now recognized that it would continue to Cape Town.
- Trans-African Highway (TAH 4), 301627 301627 Cairo–Gaborone–(Pretoria/Cape Town) Highway, 10,228 km: the southern half of this route is complete but it requires construction in northern Sudan, north-western Ethiopia and northern Kenya. Crossing the Egypt-Sudan border by road has been prohibited for a number of years, a vehicle ferry on Lake Nasser is used instead. As with TAH 3, South Africa was not originally included as the idea was first proposed in the Apartheid era, but it is now recognized that it would continue to Pretoria and Cape Town. Except for passing through Ethiopia, the route roughly coincides with proposals for the Cape to Cairo Road in the early 20th century British Empire.
As noted above, TAH 1 and TAH 7 join to form an additional north-south route around the western extremity of the continent between Monrovia and Rabat.