In April 2021, Egis was awarded the contract for the O&M of the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway – Uganda’s first toll road – linking the capital with its international airport
An integrated approach to transport infrastructure For more than 50 years, the Egis Group development has designed, built and managed hundreds of flagship urban and transit projects “In line with its ‘Impact the Future’ strategic worldwide. Alastair Currie speaks plan, Egis aims to to Laurent Bouchacourt, CEO, Egis make this project a real Operation South Africa, about the showcase for its O&M organisation’s work locally activities in the region. The Group is fully committed and across the African to the development of continent. strategic infrastructure for the
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gis operates across the transportation and mobility spectrum – from engineering, project structuring publicprivate partnerships (PPPs), all the way through to operations and maintenance (O&M), and asset management. Recent landmark projects include the engineering, project and construction management of the entire Tangier-Kenitra line in Morocco – Africa’s first high-speed rail line – for the Office National des Chemins de Fer. The completion of this project has significantly reduced journey times between Morocco’s main cities from around 2 hours to 45 minutes. The project also provided an opportunity for upskilling and knowledge exchange between local engineers and the Egis project team.
O&M developments In April 2021, Egis was awarded the contract for the O&M of the KampalaEntebbe Expressway – Uganda’s first toll road – linking the capital with its international airport. This is also the Egis Group’s first contract awarded in Uganda.
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people of Uganda, thus opening up promising prospects in the countr y,” says Bouchacourt. He adds that Egis is also part of a consortium currently bidding for the Kampala-Jinja Toll Road PPP. O&M contracts for cross-countr y or crosscontinent bridge and tunnel infrastructure are further areas of specialisation for Egis, particularly in Europe and North America. On the African continent, Egis led the design of the recently unveiled Kazungula bridge between Botswana and Zambia, and is involved in the development of numerous one-stop border posts. Egis is also actively pursuing O&M opportunities in South Africa with Sanral, as well as provincial and municipal roads authorities within the SADC region. “O&M contracts at provincial and municipal level – on similar standards to those developed by Sanral at national level – would be most beneficial. These types of contracts would provide the much-needed standardisation, as well as economies of scale, to deliver real value-for-money opportunities for expanded skills transfer programmes and support to SMMEs,” Bouchacourt explains.
Concessions and PPPs For any countr y, the ability to successfully
roll out transportation projects hinges on available funding. This makes the PPP route a highly viable option to maximise infrastructure investments that ser ve as a catalyst for socio-economic development. Internationally, the toll road model is well established for PPP transportation projects. “Toll roads are as old as the Roman Empire! For greenfield projects, they enable public financers to leverage their balance sheets,” says Bouchacourt, adding that there are various options available. “Public entities can pay an annuity to a concessionaire – rather than incurring the full brunt of the capital expenditure – and instead allocate capital to social infrastructure, such as housing, schools or hospitals, or shift the entire fiscal burden on to a private concessionaire for 20 to 30 years while collecting an agreed-on fee, escalated annually,” he continues. “At the end of the concession period, the state can elect to have the road
Laurent Bouchacourt, CEO, Egis Operation South Africa
