Urban transport helps buoy project volumes

Urban transport is offering very

real opportunity to the project

cargo sector – especially in East

Africa. According to Deanne de

Vries, senior vice president for Agility

Africa, while many don’t think of

urban transportation when they talk

about breakbulk and project cargo,

it’s creating real opportunity for the

logistics industry.

“Urban transport projects

not only offer opportunities to

project logistics companies, but

decongesting cities helps traffic

flow which ultimately means

goods get to their end customer

or the port of export more quickly,

making the life of the logistics fleet

manager easier,” she said.

Several urban transportation

projects have been undertaken in

East Africa in the past few years.

The Nyere Bridge over the

Dar es Salaam bay opened in

April 2016 while the first phase

of the Dar es Salaam Rapid

Transit (DART) system started

operations in May 2016.

Closer to home the longest

suspension bridge in Africa (3km) is

currently being built in Maputo as

part of a larger plan which includes

a ring road around the city, two

new main roads out of the city, and

rehabilitation of five existing bridges

in Mozambique.