Two elevated concrete guideways are emerging across the desert east and west of Cairo, forming what will be the world's longest monorail. From either side of the River Nile, about 62 miles of monorail in two lines are spreading out from the Egyptian capital to new administrative and residential developments.
The monorail will have no track, but its rubber-tired trains will run directly on concrete guideways, says a senior project engineer. Precasting thousands of 85-to-100-ft-long guideway prestressed concrete beams to such precision is a challenge. But difficulties in diverting utilities have been more disruptive.