Tunisia: Construction of 1657 km of roads for 619 million dinars

Equipment and land settlement minister, Slaheddine Malouch, held on Monday at the headquarters of the ministry a press conference that began to take on the semblance of a regular meeting with the national press. It provided the opportunity to review the infrastructure projects underway in Tunisia.
The Minister pointed out that two months after its inauguration, the Radès-La Goulette bridge operates in accordance with the objectives assigned to it. With 25,000 vehicles daily “the bridge works exactly according to our forecasts,” said the minister. The bridge, thanks to its current traffic flow, is alleviating the pressure on downtown Tunis, easing the connection between the capital suburbs,
The Minister dwelt on all infrastructure projects under way, both in the Greater Tunis and elsewhere in the country, mainly the construction or the upgrading of 1657 km of roads whose cost reaches 619 million dinars in addition to other projects and those to start soon i.e. the scheduled  highway linking Sfax to Gabès, the  enlargement of the Tunis-Hammamet highway due to be launched next  August  . The Minister also evoked the current progress of projects relating to the development of some secondary roads respectively in the governorates of Gabès, Mahdia or R116 and R87 regional roads. The work of these two projects started e two months ago with costs amounting to 40 million dinars.
Broadly speaking, all the projects that are currently underway in various parts of the country include the construction of 5 bridges and two interchanges.
In the Greater Tunis, 5 projects are being implemented including the  Avenue of the Republic cloverleaf intersection, the bridge on X road , at the City of Sciences, the n° 9 Highway project linking Tunis to La Marsa, designed  to connect the airport, including the terminal of pilgrims, with the North Lake, besides  the project of protecting the city of Manouba and the scheduled construction of an interchange at the Ras Tabia on the road XX3, which should ease pressure on the intersection between the  November,7 Road  and other secondary roads. The costs of these projects amount to 123 million dinars, and work is being conducted according to schedule.
Within the country, 36 projects are underway. They cover 20 governorates and include the construction of 671 km of roads. Among these projects, 7 governorates will have new interchanges, such as “Bouaasida” in Sfax, and the new entrance to the airport of Enfidha which must be opened to traffic soon. In addition, 5 new bridges will be constructed, including the cities of Monastir, Bizerte and Beja.
As for byroads, the Minister stressed that all the roads under way or to be built will reach 744 km, spread over 24 projects at a total cost of 124 million dinars.
The fourth workpackage the Minister talked about concerns the projects whose tenders have been launched, namely 79 km of roads, two interchanges and 7 bridges. Construction costs amount to 122.5 million dinars. S. Malouche also said that the planned enlargement of the Tunis-Hammamet highway should start in  August. According to him, it would be better to avoid the summer period during which this highway records a large traffic.  This project is divided into two tranches-Turki Tunis (30 km) and Turki-Hammamet-South (21.6 miles). The work will last 20 months and will cost 55 million dinars.