GAUFF Engineering - Rehabilitation of the EN280 National Road Cuchi

Rehabilitation of the EN280 national road between Cuchi and Cutato
Client: Instituto Nacional de Estradas de Angola (INEA)
Project location: Cubango Province, Angola
Project term: 30 months
Project start: September 2019

Contract:

Rehabilitation of the EN280 National Road in the section from Cuchi to Cutato (54 km), Cubango Province, Angola

Background

This project was commissioned by the National Road Institute of Angola (INEA) and the provincial government of Cubango in order to significantly improve the road infrastructure in the region. The aim was to create safe and well-developed transport links between important locations - in particular a significantly faster and shorter connection via the EN280 national road between Menongue and Lubango.

The project is part of a long-term strategy: the increase in road traffic due to the region's economic growth requires modern roads that are passable at all times - even in the rainy season.

Project

The consortium ‘GAUFF Engineering / INZAG GERMANY GmbH’ was commissioned by the Instituto Nacional de Estradas de Angola (INEA) to execute the rehabilitation of a 54 km section of the national road EN280 between Cuchi and Cutato.

The project comprised the complete rehabilitation of the carriageway with a total carriageway width of 9.00 m, consisting of two 3.50 m wide lanes and 1.00 m wide hard shoulders on each side. The carriageway structure was designed for the second-highest traffic class T5 (as per SATCC standards), which corresponds to a daily load of up to 3,000 heavy trucks. The carriageway layers consist of a 5 cm thick bituminous wearing course, a 20 cm thick base course of gravel, a 20 cm thick base course of selected soils and a 20 cm thick sub-base.

An important part of the project was the design and construction of 54 new drainage structures, including box culverts, to ensure the safe drainage of surface water along the road.

Within the consortium, GAUFF Engineering acted as lead partner and was responsible for project management, design and technical studies, contract administration and quality assurance. INZAG GERMANY GmbH was responsible for all construction work and material deliveries.

Furthermore, GAUFF Engineering successfully arranged the project financing, which was provided by a banking consortium consisting of Commerzbank, AKA-Bank and Helaba (Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen) and secured by Hermes cover from EULER Hermes.