SR-45 and SR-60 for the Rod El Farag Project in Egypt
Located near the Nile Delta, Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Its metropolitan area is the widest in the Arab world and the biggest urban area in Africa. Cairo’s traffic congestion is legendary and the city is famous for being overwhelming and overcrowded. Each day the 20 million residents of Egypt’s capital city take to the roads of Cairo some 3.3 million cars. Roads and bridges are vital for a flourishing national economy and there is a growing need for more modern and efficient freight transportation infrastructures in Egypt, including ports, railways and most importantly a strong road network.”
The Rod El Farag Project will connect the existing ring road around Cairo with the Cairo–Alexandria Desert Highway, and it will provide an alternative route to the heavily congested roads. The Rod El Farag Highway will be approximately 35 kilometres long, with 8 lanes (4 in each direction). The highway will also have a service lane on each side, minimising the impact of disruptions and accidents on the highway. The project also includes the construction of two bridges across the River Nile, one 260 m wide and the other 180 m wide.”
From a morphological point of view, the job site area is basically flat with an average amount of natural ground lying between +1.5 and +2.0 m above sea level. More specifically, the stratigraphy consists of two formations: silty clay, with very soft to medium compact consistency, and medium dense to very dense silty sand, with some lenses of very compact hard silty clay up to the maximum depth investigated.”
The piles are designed with a diameter of 1000 mm and a maximum depth of 31 m. The excavation is performed using bentonite mud and bucket tools. The project foresees the execution of more than 3000 piles. Many Soilmec rigs have been chosen for the Rod El Farag bridge and road construction project, thanks to their flexibility and fast operating capacity, especially the SR-45 and the SR-60, that are operating successfully throughout the area.”
