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

  • BICES Beijing; China bouncing back
    November 13, 2017
    At the BICES exhibition in Beijing, it was clear that the Chinese construction market has bounced back - Mike Woof writes. Demand for construction machines is now improving in China once more, with the backlog of unsold or nearly new secondhand units having been absorbed. This was apparent at the recent BICES construction machinery exhibition held in Beijing, where firms were more bullish than in previous years.
  • Volvo's next generation
    February 15, 2012
    New products from Volvo Construction Equipment are emission-compliant as a matter of course, says the company, which will introduce next generation articulated haulers (ADTs), wheeled loaders, excavators and backhoe loaders. From the six-strong F-Series articulated haulers (starting with the A25F with a load capacity of 24tonnes to the A40F FS with 39tonnes) will be the 28tonne capacity A30F and the A40F.
  • Boom in African road construction projects
    February 22, 2012
    Huge investments are being made in major road construction projects for North Africa. The biggest is the 'Autoroute Transmaghrébine' highway, which is also Africa's largest ever road construction project. Once complete, the highway will connect the Maghreb states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya and will have a total length of 3,200km.
  • World of Asphalt/AGG1 Aggregates Forum & Expo
    April 13, 2012
    World of Asphalt 2012 and the co-located AGG1 Aggregates Forum & Expo will be the largest in the history of the two events.