Highways
Outside of cities, the first major paved roads were constructed from the northern town of Arlit to the Benin border in the 1970s and 1980s. This road, dubbed the Uranium Highway, runs through Arlit, Agadez, Tahoua, Birnin-Konni, and Niamey, and is part of the Trans-Sahara Highway system.
An additional paved highway runs from Niamey via Maradi and Zinder towards Diffa in the far east of the nation, although the stretch from Zinder to Diffa is only partially paved. Portions of this route are used by the Trans-Sahel Highway route. The Niger section is 837 km long (of which 600 km was in poor condition as of 2000), via Niamey, Dosso, Dogondoutchi, Birnin-Konni and Maradi to the Nigerian border at Jibiya.
Other roads range from all-weather laterite surfaces to grated dirt or sand Pistes, especially in the arid north.
The United States government in 1996 estimated there were a total of 10100 km of highways in Niger, with 798 km paved and 9302 km, unpaved, but making no distinction between improved or all weather roads and unimproved roads. The government of Niger, in 2009, gave a figure of 18949 km of total roadways.
Read more about this topic: Transport In Niger
Famous quotes containing the word highways:
“That is the land of lost content
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)