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[NAM] Namibia | roads & freeways

49K views 86 replies 38 participants last post by  nazrey 
#1 ·


I could not find any good pictures, so I took some from Google Earth...












Looks pretty good to me. Does anybody have any ground pictures?
 
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#52 ·
Yes, it was way too long before the roads developed in colonies. Germany lost Namibia around 1918, that is approximately 14 years before the first real Autobahn in Germany opened. Before that, roads were not seen as a priority, especially not in colonies. Germany also had a few colonies in east Africa (I believe Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania).

However, it has to be noted some French colonies didn't have any road development in colonial times either (for example; Chad).
 
#53 ·
The German Wiki about German South-West Africa has some interesting info about transport in colonial Namibia. The colony was considered inapt for road transport, because cars would get stuck in the sand all the time. So they constructed a rail network.At 2100 km at the outbreak of WWI, it was a fairly extensive one actually.

To what extent colonial powers created roads depended, I think, to a certain degree on the demographics of the colonies. In Indo-China for one (present dat Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), the French built a network of Routes Coloniales. Ever wondered why the main throughfare of Laos bears number 13? And why Vietnamese Route 13 is so much out of place in the Vietnamese network? That's all Route Coloniale 13; they French needed a better way to get inland from Saigon than the Mekong, so they constructed roads. But not so in many other colonies. For other colonies, other means of transport were convenient enough. Namibia seems to be one of them ...
 
#57 · (Edited)


Near Windhoek. Seems to be a motorway with a very wide median?



North of Windhoek. Re-post.



Windhoek. Seems to be some kind of motorway.



Road B2. Connecting Windhoek to Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.



Same road, a bit more to the west.



Once again the B2.



View from B2 :D



Still B2. In the middle of the desert now, soon in Swakopmund. (I think the sign says 66?)



Just outside Swakopmund.
 
#61 ·
From the Windhoek city gallery in the African section

Wiew from the Hochland Road Highway


View of the Hosea Kutako Road from the same highway, the other side


Hochland Road


This is what you see from the two highways intersection


Same intersection, with my luxurious Rolls Royce on the foreground :D






Kentucky Fried :D I swear, I won't eat that for anything in this world(sorry to junk-food lovers)


Taken from Polytechnic of Namibia Hights (residential building), with Wernhill Park Shopping Mall in the foreground (red roof)
 
#66 ·
B1 Windhoek - Okahandja

A freeway project in Namibia:

Trunk Road 1/6 between Okahandja and Windhoek will be rehabilitated and upgraded to a dual carriage way.

The project is 78km long and will be subdivided into 4 sections, which will be constructed in phases over a number of years.

Section 1 will entail the construction of a second carriageway between Auas road and Main Road 52 at Sam Nujoma Drive. After which section 2 of the project will entail the rehabilitation of the current dual carriageway from Sam Nujoma Drive to Brakwater.

Section 3, the current Western Bypass will be extended northwards from Brakwater to the Dobra River.

Section 4 will continue with the freeway all the way to Okahandja, passing Okahandja via the Okahandja Western Bypass, linking the existing roads to Otjiwarongo and Karibib.​

Section 3 is about 10 kilometers long and under construction since 2014. It is planned to open in March 2016.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201511030401.html
 
#67 ·
Entries from 2013 in a German truck and heavy duty plant forum say Namibia has the following types of roads:

"A": the best category, corresponding to 2 X 2 divided highways. Only in/around Windhoek and a total length no more than 50 km.

"B": important main roads, asphalted on their entire length. A few sections of excellent quality

"C": less important (but of greater total length that B roads) gravel-surface rural roads where gravel is leveled from time to time (but with African gelassenheit instead of a regular schedule).

"D": rural gravel roads hardly getting any maintenance and often very sandy. Wild animals, and animal-drawn vehicles are common on them.

"P" and "F": roads leading to private estates (lodges) or farms, with farmers or other individuals responsible for their maintenance.


Photos of "B" roads from that source:








Photos of "C" roads:







:cheers:
 
#70 ·
A1 freeway

19 April 2017

A 10 kilometer segment of the new A1 freeway in Namibia was inaugurated on 19 April 2017. It runs from Brakwater north of Windhoek to de Döbra River. It seems to be the first new freeway in Namibia since at least the early 1980s. It is part of the Windhoek - Okahandja freeway upgrade project.

For this occasion, new A-numbering for freeways has been introduced and blue signs are used for such freeways.

It appears though, that the freeway itself may have been in service since December 2016, but the official inauguration by the Roads Authority occurred on 19 April 2017.

http://www.namibian.com.na/53776/read/Dual-carriageway-costs-N$25b
Some more interesting background concerning the upgrade of freeways in Namibia:

The completed section was renamed from B1 to A1. This was done in accordance with the RA/Ministry of Works and Transport standards (manuals) that state that all freeways should be A, the colour change of road signs from green to blue is also the requirement for freeways. The public can expect more A roads like the Windhoek-Hosea Kutako road, Walvis-Bay-Swakopmund road and Omuthiya-Ongwediva. These roads will all be upgraded to freeway standards.

(...)

would like to use this platform to share with you that Section 4A of this project is progressing well. This section involves the rehabilitation and upgrading to dual carriageway of the road from Dobra River to the Omakunde Interchange. The project commenced in January 2016 and is progressing well. The Contractor has started with the construction of the interchanges and has also completed some of the major concrete structures. In addition, there are also some sections of the base that have been completed and surfacing will soon follow. This will see some section of about 7 kilometres completed and open to south bound traffic by end of June 2017. The envisaged completion date for this section is January 2019.​

Source (PDF)
 
#73 ·
The first phase of the new freeway from Windhoek to the airport will open in August 2021:



The articles also mention that phase 2 has commenced this month, extending the freeway to the airport. The airport is located some 40 kilometers east of Windhoek.

 
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