Skip to main content

North African roads

Morocco has a rapidly expanding road network, which is benefiting from expertise offered by French contractor Colas. The quality of Morocco's roads is higher than in many other African countries, with much of this due to the use of the latest road construction technology by Colas. It previously took almost two days to go from Casablanca to Tan Tan in the south and this journey now takes less than eight hours. Colas has some 800 machines and vehicles in Morocco, with 70 graders, 70 wheeled loaders, 50 excava
February 8, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Morocco has a rapidly expanding road network, which is benefiting from expertise offered by French contractor 184 Colas. The quality of Morocco's roads is higher than in many other African countries, with much of this due to the use of the latest road construction technology by Colas.

It previously took almost two days to go from Casablanca to Tan Tan in the south and this journey now takes less than eight hours. Colas has some 800 machines and vehicles in Morocco, with 70 graders, 70 wheeled loaders, 50 excavators, 50 compactors, 30 bulldozers, six articulated haulers and a lot of smaller vehicles. 2394 Volvo supplies 30 of these larger machines, including G900 graders, L120F wheel loaders, excavators of 22-45tonnes and a dozen asphalt pavers including Volvo's latest ABG7820 paver. Colas has doubled its business in Morocco over the last five years, benefiting from increased government spending on its road network.

However, harsh conditions make building roads in desert conditions difficult. The heat affects the wearing course, but this can be solved using admixtures to the asphalt, however the occasional rainstorm breaks up the structure and can be heavy and destructive. Meanwhile traffic volumes have grown significantly and the country has had to develop its network significantly. With contracts to build 150km of highway near Morocco's border with Mauritania, a 40km road through the mountains near Casablanca and a host of other projects, Colas hopes to win more business in the future.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The ABG Advantage: What separates these pavers from the competition?
    September 25, 2024
    There are a great many roadbuilding products out there. Sometimes it can be hard to separate the best from the rest.
  • Asphalt compaction seeing major technical advances
    August 24, 2016
    Key innovations in asphalt compaction will help improve overall paving quality - Mike Woof writes
  • The ADT offers hauling versatility
    May 20, 2014
    The ADT offers a highly versatile option for earthmoving applications and manufacturers are offering new and improved models with the latest low emission engines - Mike Woof writes The versatility and adaptability of the ADT has seen this type of machine become one of the most important types of equipment for the global off-highway machinery sector. The once popular motor scraper now sells in only limited numbers, even in the US, and has been replaced by the more versatile excavator and ADT combination o
  • Pavers produce on Chinese road building project
    May 19, 2015
    Volvo tracked pavers are helping China meet its ambitious programme of building 10,000km of roads annually. China’s ambitious road building programme is seeing over 10,000km of new highway being completed every year. Productivity, reliability and good uptime of equipment are key to this programme being achieved. And to the north of Xi’an, four Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) ABG8820 tracked pavers recently worked 14 hours/day paving the final layer of asphalt on a new highway. This 96km route opened