Published on :
With more than three million inhabitants, Casablanca is a densely populated and highly congested city. A difficulty pointed out by the urban transport plan of Casablanca which recommended the realization of a certain number of mass public transport projects. Among them, in particular two new tram lines, i.e. 26 kilometers serving 39 stops. Work is underway.
From our special correspondent back from Casablanca,
The spatial organization of African cities is at the heart of many discussions. How to unblock cities which have grown very quickly and which were not designed for the massive use of private cars? The question of pollution problems is also central. In Casablanca, a city where the tone behind the wheel is rising quickly, the imminent arrival of two new tram lines is welcome. The two existing lines already transport 170,000 people per day, on average more than in Paris.
« The objective and the primary ambition of all these projects is really to give Casablancans a real alternative to the use of their own car, explains Shada Taïb, communication director of Casa Transport. What we see is that the majority of trips in Casablanca today are home-to-work or home-to-study trips. These are more or less obligatory trips. The objective is to bridge distances, to open economic opportunities, opportunities for studies, work, and others to all inhabitants, regardless of where they live. »
A project with many technical challenges
At the crossroads of the already existing line 1, line 3 is under construction. The future tracks already frame a beautiful alley of palm trees. Yves Genevois gives us a tour of the site: “ There’s something very important here, it’s this platform nose, this huge granite stone, it’s as beautiful as anything. We have kept this principle of layout of the station. »
Yves Genevois supervises the works for the company Egis. ” It’s trivial, but finding quarries that can quickly provide these stones is not easy either. So today, one of our problems is getting these stones on time. We should have all these stones, but now they arrive at the dropper. We actually thought that we would have technical problems; we have others. Supply problems, for example, in electronic equipment… But the granite border, we thought it would be quite harmless, in fact not at all. »
This project presents many challenges: a dozen structures, uneven passages, densely populated streets… To carry out this project, Casa Transport also had certain conditions. “ It’s not really a challenge, it’s a choice of the contracting authority who decided to have Moroccan companies work as a priority, which did not necessarily have skills, recognized in any case, in our specific areas of track laying, explains Yves Genevois. We took up this challenge, we had no choice, and the contracting authority therefore wanted Moroccan companies to take over these major infrastructure works. It was a bet, it seems to work well, and today, we can say that we have practically succeeded in doing this work. »
The commissioning of these two lines is scheduled for the end of 2023. Casablanca will then have six mass public transport lines, four tram lines and two busways.
► To read also: Rail, a solution to relieve congestion in African megacities