Casablanca: The longest urban bridge completed
One of the longest urban bridges in Morocco will soon start its operations. This is the bridge ramp of Boulevard Mohammed VI at the intersections with Boulevards Al Qods, Driss El Harti, Dakhla and Amgala. The workers are putting the finishing touches to this colossal engineering structure, before its official launch.
The circulation of vehicles on the bridge will free up the space below, in order to finalize the work on the future tram line 3 and on the surrounding roads. Longer than the cable-stayed bridge of Sidi Maârouf, this engineering structure, with a total length of 1,100 m including the entrance ramps, should make the traffic on this major axis, representing one of the main accesses to the city of Casablanca draining very dense traffic with significant flows of heavy goods vehicles. This bridge ramp will also secure the surface pedestrian paths of Casabus, Casabusway (Bw1), Casatramway (line 3) travelers, and of the other transport services for better service performance and for optimal passenger connections in this largest future hub of the TCSP network. Nearly 10 engineers and 200 people are mobilized under this project, which unfolds without interrupting road traffic. The Casa-Transports company is responsible for the delegated project management of this project, while the Bioui company is carrying out the work for an amount of 171.3 million Dirhams (17 million USD). In addition to the transit role provided by the bridge, the section located between Al Qods and Driss El Harti boulevards will be the largest interchange hub in the public transport network on its own site (line 3 of tramway and line 1 of BRT), and will be close to large taxi and bus stops.
The tram station, in an axial position, will be set up below the structure, while that of the Bus Rapid Transit will laterally adjoin the Al Hosna mosque. In terms of passenger service, this structure will in particular ensure safe correspondence between users of the planned modes of transport and those already in existence (tramway, BRT, large taxis, and buses) by reducing the volume of vehicles using the section at the surface, and limiting vehicle/pedestrian conflicts. The goal is also to improve the commercial performance of trams and nuses with a high level of service (BRTs), at intersections by guaranteeing them priority.
Aziza EL AFFAS
