Eiffage, France’s third-largest contractor, is building a $315-million toll road in Dakar. Eiffage will have a 30-year concession to build, finance, operate and maintain the 25-kilometer-long road.

At present, more than 100,000 vehicles use a double-lane road to enter and exit Dakar on a daily basis, causing severe traffic congestion. The Dakar-Diamniadio toll road is expected to cut the average commute to less than 30 minutes from two hours.

Work already has begun on the easternmost segment in the suburb of Diamniadio. But land purchases are still under way in the urban district of Pikine in Dakar. Several thousand families will be relocated in that section. The completed road will be three lanes wide in each direction in the 7-km-long, mostly urban segment, and two lanes wide in each direction for the remaining 18 km. It is expected to be completed by August, 2013.

The International Finance Corp., a unit of the World Bank, was the lead arranger and will offer loans of $29.9 million. The West African Development Bank, the African Development Bank and CBAO, a Senegalese commercial bank, will offer an additional combined total of $53.2 million.