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Discover Why France Is Investing in a Highway Around an Island. With 12 km in Length, This Highway Involves a Billion-Dollar Investment and Promises to Transform the Region.
In 2013, a small island of the African continent announced the construction of a highway to connect its two main cities. The announcement of this project could have gone completely unnoticed, especially since it concerns a highway of only 12.5 km, but there was a particularity in this project that caught the attention of many. The initial budget was US$ 1.6 billion. Understand why France is building a highway around an island.
Understand Why France Is Building a Highway Around an Island
The island was formed over two volcanoes, one of them called Bico das Neves in loose translation, which became extinct about 12,000 years ago, and on it are situated two-thirds of the island’s territory. The other volcano, Pico da Fornalha, is considered one of the most active volcanoes in the world, erupting constantly.
All this volcanic activity created a distinct landscape, with many mountains, valleys, and, as one might imagine, this generated immense difficulties in transportation between the different points of the island.
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Regarding traffic, we also add the fact that this territory has a high number of vehicles per inhabitant, being almost one car for every two residents. So many cars in a rugged terrain with few roads turned the traffic into chaos with huge congestion.
The connection between the main cities of the island is made by a road built at the foot of a cliff, where chunks of rock constantly fall and hit the roadway. Since 1980, 20 deaths have been reported due to falling rocks on the highway. This explains why France is building a highway around an island.
Construction of the Highway Around the Island Began in 2014
The idea that resolves all problems at once was to build a highway over the sea, with a distance of 50 to 200 meters from the cliff and high enough that the roadway stays out of reach of the waves. This highway around the island would only have one small problem: The Cost. At the time the works were announced, the cost per kilometer of highway built was estimated at US$ 133 million and the total construction was expected to reach US$ 1.6 billion.
Effectively, the construction of the highway around the island began in 2014, and according to the project, about 6.5 km of the highway would be built in two stretches of landfill advancing over the sea, and the other part would be executed through viaducts, one with a length of 5.5 km and another small viaduct that should connect the two landfill stretches.
The initial forecast was that the highway around the island would be inaugurated in 2020. Besides the high costs, a project of such magnitude in this environment presents technical and construction challenges. Winds in the region reach impressive speeds of 140 km per hour, and waves can reach up to 10m high.
The Construction of the Highway Around the Island
To make execution possible, it was necessary to set up manufacturing centers for the precast concrete structures at locations far from the installation site and transport them to their final destination. For this, an enormous amount of cranes and large lifting equipment was needed, as well as transport barges.
After the start of the works, the government and those in charge discovered that the problems to be faced would go beyond the high budget and technical difficulties; however, the works for the viaduct progressed and continued according to the planned schedule.
Essa ilha fica na África ??