Fortune News | Aug 10,2019
Oct 19 , 2019
By TEMESGEN MULUGETA ( FORTUNE STAFF WRITER )
The nation's first toll road, Addis Adama Expressway, is undergoing major maintenance and upgrading at a cost of 27.2 million Br.
Expected to be completed in the coming two months, the project includes maintenance of the asphalt road, installing road lights and installing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. The Enterprise has repaired both lanes of the asphalt road for seven kilometres. It also put up road lights, which cover seven kilometres, on three toll plazas, for 14 million Br. The work has reached 70pc completion.
The maintenance of the road, which is underway by the engineering department of the Enterprise, started a month ago.
The upgrading projects aim at reducing road accidents and increasing road safety, according to Zahara Mohammed, marketing and communications team leader of the Enterprise, which has 800 employees and administers two toll roads, Addis-Adama, a 84.7Km toll road, which was constructed with 11.2 billion Br, and the Dire Dawa – Dewele Toll Road, a 220Km highway, which was built for 5.9 billion Br.
The upgrading project also includes the adoption of ERP, a concept first developed in the 1960s to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system that can serve all departments’ particular needs. Supplied by Cybersoft Plc, a local company engaged in the Development of ICT solutions since 1998, the ERP software cost the Enterprise 4.6 million Br.
Recently, the Enterprise adjusted the tariff paid on Addis Adama Expressway. It charges 77 cents for automobiles and 105 cents for heavy trucks a kilometre on the Addis-Adama Toll Road. Since the road started operations, it has been used by 33 million vehicles, which generated one billion Birr in revenues. The number of cars it hosts a day has also increased from 8,000 to 24,000.
Inaugurated five years ago, the Addis-Adama Expressway is a 31m wide, six-lane expressway that took five years to be completed. It shortens the total travel time from two hours to 45 minutes. Dire Dawa-Dewele, a two-way highway that ranges from 10m to 21.5m in width and has a 10cm thickness, crosses over 29 bridges and has three toll plazas. It cut in half the current time it takes to travel to Dewele.
The Enterprise, which was established in July 2014 as a public enterprise, collected 158.6 million Br in revenues during the first year of operationsfrom five million vehicles that used the road.
In the last fiscal year, the total road network at the national level reached 126,773Km at the rate of a 5.5pc annual expansion. Road density also increased to 115.2Km from 109.2Km a year ago, a 5.5pc improvement.
Abebe Dinku, (Prof.), a civil engineer and chair of construction materials & management at Addis Abeba University, says that the routine maintenance is reasonable and expected.
The upgrading will minimise accidents, increase road safety and create a much comfortable environment for drivers, according to Abebe.
Only in the first quarter of last year, the Addis-Adama Expressway registered 11 accidents.
"The enterprise should also consider constructing international standard facilities, having cafeterias and restrooms on the highway," he adds.
PUBLISHED ON
Oct 19,2019 [ VOL
20 , NO
1016]
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