# [DY] Benin | road infrastructure • routes du Bénin



## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Benin inaugurated its first grade-separated interchange this year. It's the RNIE1 / RNIE2 interchange in western Cotonou. It's part of a project to widen the RNIE to four lanes.










DY = Dahomey, the former name of Benin. It is still the official license plate code, despite French Dahomey ceasing to exist in 1958.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

edit 2023: this post contained photos from Panoramio, which has long been discontinued.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

_*In Benin, Sogea-Satom (VINCI Construction) is currently rehabilitating 148.6 km of the interstate highway to Niger, between Gogounou and Kandi.*_










*Once completed, this road will facilitate trade between the port of Cotonou and Niger, and the transporting of cereal crops to processing plants. It will also improve links between the communes passed through by the project.*
_
The works notably involve improving badly deteriorated sections using cement-reinforced recycled materials, while on sections in less bad condition potholes are repaired and the shoulders upgraded, and the existing road is reinforced with an asphalt-gravel base layer and an asphalt concrete wearing course. The project also includes civil engineering works, with the reconstruction of 87 culverts, 6 large structures and a bridge with a 45 lm-long span, and improvement and drainage works where the road passes through towns and suburbs. Launched in June 2021, the works should be completed in December 2024._



https://www.vinci.com/vinci.nsf/en/news-update/pages/in_benin_sogea_satom_vinci_construction_is_currently_rehabilitating_1486_km_of_the_interstate_highway_to_niger_between_gogounou_and_kandi_benin_012023.htm



This is part of RNIE2, which is the main north-south road in Benin. It is also the oldest major paved road of Benin, it was built between 1954 and 1957 as a 3.5 meter wide paved road. It ran from Parakou to the border with Niger (then both part of French West Africa). A bridge was built across the Niger River in 1959.

Parakou is a railhead, for some time (almost 30 years in fact) they decided not to pave the road from Parakou south to Cotonou, because the rail line carried freight from inland Africa to the port of Cotonou. This wasn't paved until the late 1980s.


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