Algiers Lagos Highway

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Course of the Algiers-Lagos highway

The Algiers-Lagos-Highway - also called the Trans-Sahara-Highway - is a project to pave an existing trade route through the Sahara desert , to improve it and to simplify the border formalities. It connects North Africa on the Mediterranean coast in the north and West Africa on the Atlantic Ocean in the south and runs from Algiers in Algeria to Lagos in Nigeria . It is also known as the Lagos-Algiers Highway and is No. 2 in the Trans-African Highways (TAH) system.

Emergence

The Algiers-Lagos Highway is the oldest cross-border highway in Africa and one of the most advanced. It was planned in 1962, and in 1970 work began on the first sections in the Sahara. Its middle section is still little used and you need specially equipped vehicles for it and you have to take precautions to survive in the inhumane environment and the extreme climate in the middle of the desert.

Length and condition

The Algiers-Lagos Highway has a length of 4542 km, about 80% of which is paved. It runs through the three states of Algeria, Niger and Nigeria. However, a further 3600 km of access roads to Tunisia , Chad and Mali are added to this trunk road.

The entire 1193 km of the trunk road in Nigeria belong to the country's national road network and are paved throughout, 500 km of which are even four-lane roads with a central guardrail. However, the maintenance of the roads in Nigeria is poor, so parts of the road are likely to be in poor condition and may even have lost their asphalt surface.

Half of the trunk road, over 2,334 km, is in Algeria and particularly south of In Salah , most of it is in poor condition, as it is regularly inundated by floods from the Hoggar Mountains and needs to be repaired. In 2007, the southern half of the 400 km from Tamanrasset to In Guezzam on the border with Niger was re-tarred, but the rest is a sand track. The entire route between Algiers and the Niger border is marked as National Road 1 .

Niger has 985 km of roads, 655 km of which are paved but in poor condition. For more information, see below.

Furthermore, a Sahara crossing via the Tripoli-Windhoek (Cape Town) Highway (TAH 3) is being planned, but this route still needs a lot more work, has to deal with problems of instability and lawlessness in northern Chad and will probably become the Do not stimulate trade as strongly as TAH 2. Therefore, its completion will probably take decades.

Two other highways cross the Sahara, but at their ends. In 2005, the Cairo-Dakar Highway (TAH 1) in the west along the Atlantic coast became the first completely paved highway that crossed the Sahara from north to south (it includes a few kilometers in the no man's land between Morocco / Western Sahara and Mauritania). The Cairo-Cape Town Highway (TAH 4) follows the Nile to the east, but has many unpaved sections in Sudan .

route

Only the larger cities were considered, which are almost directly on the highway, the table starts from Algiers and ends in Lagos .

country place Length
(from Algiers) 		Length
(between location)
AlgeriaAlgeria Algeria Algiers 0000 km
Blida 0052 km 052 km
Lambdia 0089 km 037 km
Ain Oussera 0217 km 128 km
El Djelfa 0320 km 103 km
Al-Aġwāṭ 0433 km 113 km
Ghardaia 2 0625 km 192 km
El Meniaa 2 0883 km 258 km
In Salah 2 1277 km 394 km
Tamanrasset 2 1916 km 639 km
In Guezzam 1 2316 km 400 km
Algeria-Niger border 1 2334 km 018 km
NigerNiger Niger Assamaka 1 2344 km 010 km
Arlit 2 2544 km 200 km
Agadez 2 2787 km 243 km
Tanout 3083 km 296 km
cinder 3218 km 135 km
Magaria 2 3329 km 111 km
Niger-Nigeria border 3349 km 020 km
NigeriaNigeria Nigeria Kano 3479 km 130 km
Zaria 3639 km 160 km
Kaduna 3715 km 076 km
Oyo 4332 km 617 km
Ibadan 4406 km 074 km
Lagos 4542 km 136 km
Total route: 4542 km
1 This part of the route is not paved (sand runway)
2 This part of the route is paved, but in very poor condition

The following cities and the condition of the highway in detail are as follows:

In Algeria

National Road 1 in the Algerian Sahara.
Hoggarpiste near the border between Algeria and Niger
  • From Algiers to Ghardaia , 625 km, asphalt, in good condition;
  • From Ghardaia to Tamanrasset , 1291 km, also paved, but in poor condition;
  • From Tamanrasset to In Guezzam on the border with Niger, 400 km, partly paved, but can be done with conventional vehicles with two-wheel drive;
  • From In Guezzam to Assamaka , the border post in Niger: 28 km of soft lane in the sand.

In Niger

Signpost on the Hoggar slope in Niger
  • From Assamaka to Arlit , 200 km, marked lane in the sand, but can be mastered with conventional vehicles with two-wheel drive;
  • From Arlit to Agadez , 243 km, asphalted in 1980, but partly in poor condition;
  • From Agadez to Zinder , 431 km of which 301 km are paved and the remaining 130 km are "in improved condition";
  • From Zinder to Magaria on the Nigerian border, 111 km, asphalted, but in poor condition.

In Nigeria

  • From the border with Niger to Lagos via Kano , Kaduna , Oyo , Ibadan : 1193 km asphalt, of which 127 km are in good condition and 1066 km in "satisfactory" condition.

All in all, although some paved sections are in poor condition, only 200 km of the route consists of original sand track and only 130 km are not paved, but "in improved condition".

Feeder roads

These highways are considered as feeder roads or parallel connections of the Algiers-Lagos-Highway:

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