A new metro line to speed up journeys in Cairo

Not only is Cairo the largest city in Africa, with a population of 15.5 million, it is also the only city to possess a metro on the continent. Every day, 3.5 million inhabitants travel around the city on the two existing lines.

To improve coverage of the needs of this severely congested megalopolis of 15.5 million people, the local authorities decided in 2007 to construct a third line. The first five stations came into service in 2012 and the second section is currently nearing completion.

For these first two phases of this gigantic project, we supplied the consortium responsible for construction, in which the two leading participants are Vinci and Bouygues, with approximately 900,000 m³ of concrete of several types:

• high-strength,
• ultra-impermeable,
• and self-placing filling concrete and filling mortar.

Connecting all parts of the city of Cairo

As a result, Cairo's inhabitants can already reach the center of the city more quickly and more easily from the east of the city, and vice versa. 

Construction of the other portions of line 3 will continue until 2019. When it is complete, it will stretch over 33 kilometers and will enable 1.8 million passengers to cross the city from east to west, from the international airport at Heliopolis to districts on the other bank of the Nile.

The vast program seeking to relieve traffic congestion in Greater Cairo doesn't end there: another two metro lines are due to be built by 2022.