Work has started on the motorway crossing Algeria from east to west, which is designed to be part of a 7,000km road network across the Maghreb. The government has labeled it the largest road project in the Mediterranean and North Africa. The idea of a trans-Maghreb motorway was first floated in the 1970s — the plan was that it would be integrated into a trans-African route. Three decades later, the first sod was turned earlier this year on the Algerian segment, a project that is estimated to cost $11 billion, the bill being fully paid by the Algerian state. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was present at the commencement ceremony at Hammadi, east of Algiers. The six-lane “East-West” motorway project is the centerpiece in the government’s $80 billion program of investment in Algeria’s transport infrastructure. Around 25,000km of roads are being improved, and new ports and airports constructed, with existing facilities being
