Transportation
$1.17B Angola Rail Project Advances Broader Regional Connections
Long-planned extension will provide link to Atlantic Ocean port for larger rail networks in southwest Africa
Officials at an official groundbreaking in January for 200-km Angola rail link, with construction to be fully underway later this year.
Construction of Angola's 260-km Luena-Saurimo railway line broke ground earlier this year, nearly three years after a design-build contract was awarded for the project—the southwest African country's first greenfield railroad extension in more than 100 years.
In addition to linking Angola's disparate rail system, the project will be a backbone for a broader regional initiative to connect the mineral-rich regions of Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Atlantic Ocean port of Lobito.
Brazil-based Odebrecht Engineering and Construction, through its affiliate Odebrecht Angola, in a consortium with Portugal's Bento Pedroso Construções were selected as contractors for the $1.17-billion project that will connect Angola's Moxico and Lunda-Sul provinces.
An estimated 2,000 jobs will be created during the construction of the line, part of the larger Benguela railway network.
Project financing will be from international lenders as well as the government of Angola.
Overcoming Lingering Impacts of Civil War
“All engineering studies, as well as environmental and social assessments, have been completed, and landmine clearance operations along the entire rail corridor have also been completed,” said Angola's Ministry of Transport. Landmines, placed across the country during more than 40 years of civil war that ended in 2002, have posed a major challenge to developing and upgrading the nation's infrastructure, including transportation.
The new line will have 11 bridges, eight railway stations and at least two strategic crossings, according to the ministry.
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The ministry has said that the 1,067-mm Cape gauge line will significantly reduce transport costs and durations, and contribute to more efficient flow of agricultural and processed products while boosting “transport of strategic mineral resources such as copper, cobalt and manganese and reinforcing connection to the country's main logistics and port corridors, in particular to the Port of Lobito.”
Odebrecht Angola President Rodrigo Melo said the new rail project “represents a historic milestone in land transportation.”
When completed, the Luena-Saurimo line will connect the 1,344-km Benguela railway line with the 479-km Luanda Railway in the city of Saurimo.
In December, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. approved a $553=million loan, backed by $200 million from the Development Bank of Southern Africa, for Angola's broader Lobito Atlantic Railway project.
That project entails upgrade and operation of the brownfield mineral port in Lobito and an approximately 1,300-km brownfield rail line in Angola connecting that port to Luau on the Angolan border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is anticipated that Lobito’s transportation capacity would increase ten-fold to 4.6 million metric tons—reducing critical mineral transport cost by up to 30%.
