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Algeria
Roads
Algeria has more than 90,000 kilometers of national roads, including
30,000 kilometers of primary routes, or routes nationales
(RN), and 20,000 kilometers of secondary roads, or chemins
de wilaya (CW). The rest of the road network consists of
tertiary but generally accessible roads and tracks known as chemins
communaux (CC), mainly serving rural areas in the north and
in the Sahara region. The RN and CW system of major roads is managed
by the Ministry of Public Works and its regional services, known
as Directorates for Basic Infrastructures (Directions des Infrastructures
de Base); the Ministry of Interior, Local Communities, and Tourism
and local authorities are responsible for tertiary roads. The
road network is unevenly distributed among the various regions,
but it accurately reflects the topography and demographic pattern
of the country. Thus, the network is much more developed in the
northern coastal region where economic activities and population
concentrations are heaviest. The south is served by a limited
number of national roads linking the few densely populated areas.
Three major east-west highways run through Algeria and link Morocco
with Tunisia, and three others run from north to south. The most
extensive highway project, however, is a trans-Saharan road, known
as the Road of African Unity. It runs from El Goléa south to Tamanrasset,
all the way to the southern borders, branching before it reaches
into Niger and Mali.
Figures on vehicle fleets on Algeria's roads are neither readily
available nor very reliable, mainly because vehicle registration
data are not adjusted for vehicle scrapping. Best estimates put
the number of privately owned cars and trucks at well over 1 million
in the early 1990s. This number is expected to increase as the
government continues to ease restrictions on imports of cars by
migrant workers returning to Algeria. Stateowned trucks constitute
about 80 percent of the total vehicle fleet capacity.
Data as of December 1993
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