Cairo-Gaborone-Cape Town Highway
The Cairo - Gaborone - Cape Town -Highway (formerly Cairo-Gaborone Highway ) wears the number 4 under the. Trans-African Highway network .
The highway is a component in the international highway network that the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) , the African Development Bank (ADB) and the African Union are developing. The route has a length of 10,228 km and was the first TAH route that was planned at the end of the 19th century.
route
The route runs through Egypt , Sudan , Ethiopia , Kenya , Tanzania , Zambia , Zimbabwe , Botswana and South Africa . South Africa was excluded from this route because of apartheid , but today it is widely recognized that the route leads to Cape Town. Initially, Pretoria was planned as the end point, but after the importance of the Cape Town seaport an end in Pretoria seemed incomplete and because all the major roads of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) lead to Cape Town, it was decided to also lead this route to the Cape . In various documents, this road is also referred to as the "Cairo-Gaborone Highway" or "Cairo-Pretoria Highway".
Missing pieces
The southern half of the Cairo-Cape Town Highway is ready, but new roads are needed in northern Sudan, where sand tracks require the use of all-wheel drive vehicles, in northern Kenya and in central Tanzania. For some years now, crossing the border from Egypt to Sudan has been banned because of the controversial border line in the Hala'ib triangle . Instead, a car ferry across Lake Nasser can be used.
Most of the route through Ethiopia runs through mountainous regions, which means that some stretches of the route can be dangerous even though they are paved.
The missing section in northern Kenya ('Northern Highway') was completed by Chinese road builders at the end of 2016, making it one of the best-developed sections of TAH 4 (border between Ethiopia and Mount Kenya region). The route is now safely navigable, previously operating gangs of road robbers were pushed back with the constant presence of Kenyan security forces.
Since Kenya has a paved connection route to the southern Sudanese border, a route through the south-east of Sudan to Khartoum could ultimately represent a shorter alternative to the route through Ethiopia.
The gravel road through Dodoma in central Tanzania is temporarily impassable, so the alternative route via Moshi , Korogwe and Morogoro could be viewed as a better option for driving a trunk road. However, this route has also been poorly maintained recently.
Between Chalinze ( Iringa ) and Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia, the highway uses an important, paved regional route, the Tanzam Highway , which is also called the Great North Road there . This trunk road is currently the only one to connect two important regions in Africa, namely East and South Africa. It is widely used by all TAHs.
With a few differences, the Cairo-Cape Town Highway shows similarities with the Cape-Cairo plan of the British Empire from the early 20th century.
swell
- African Development Bank , United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Ed.): Review of the Implementation Status of the Trans African Highways and the Missing Links. Volume 2: Description of Corridors . here section HIGHWAY 4 - CAIRO - GABORONE (PDF document from p. 82), Stockholm, August 14, 2003. online at www.afdb.org (English)
- Michelin Motoring and Tourist Map: "Africa Central and South". Michelin Travel Publications, Paris (2000) (English)