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Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda

Lake Kivu lakeside highway

Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda
Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda
Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda
Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda
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  • Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda
  • Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda
  • Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda
  • Lake Kivu lakeside highway, Rwanda

The Lake Kivu lakeside highway connects Burundi to Rwanda, with a total length of265.7kilometers, of which185kilometers are within Rwanda. The Lake Kivu lakeside region is an important economic crop producing area in Rwanda,70%of coffee and40%of tea are produced in this area. The initial construction of this winding mountain road presented extremely high technical requirements for the engineering team. Firstly, the terrain was complex, with large earthworks involved in road widening and handling steep slopes; secondly, the foundation was weak, requiring solutions for challenges in the black cotton soil areas; and thirdly, the high rainfall in the surrounding area placed higher quality and progress requirements on the project. The Chinese engineering team overcame numerous difficulties and ultimately completed the road, reducing the travel time from5hours to1hours20minutes, while significantly improving road safety and the environment.

 

The construction of this road not only promotes Rwanda's exports but also has significant importance in national defense. The Rwandan government spared no effort in seeking foreign funding for the construction of this highway, obtaining a total of3.5US dollars in financing from the Saudi Development Fund, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Export-Import Bank of China. The completion of the project further solidified the good reputation of “Chinese quality, Chinese standards, and Chinese speed” locally, becoming a model project of Chinese enterprises in the region under the Belt and Road Initiative framework and winning the National Excellent Engineering Award of China.