TRANSCAMEROON RAILROAD ITI

THE MAJOR COMPONENT OF THE PROJECT WILL BE THE RECONSTRUCTION AND REALIGNMENT OF SOME OF THE WORST PORTIONS OF THE 1INE BETWEEN THE TWO CITIES. REALIGNMENT WILL CONSIST OF REDUCING THE SLOPE OF EXCESSIVE GRADES,EXCAVATING NEW TRACK BED,AND RELAYING TRACK TO ELIMINATE MANY OF THE CURVES. COMPLETION OF REALIGNMENT WORK WILL REDUCE RAIL DISTANCE BETWEEN THE STATIONS AT DOUALA & EDEA BY 12.1 KM AND WILL REDUCE THE NUMBER OF CURVES FROM 164 TO 34. TWO RAIL BRIDGES WILL BE CONSTRUCTED OVER THE BRAS MORT & BRAS VIF BRANCHES OF THE SANAAA RIVER AT EDEA. THE PRESENT BRIDGES AT THESE SITES ARE SINGLE-TRACK RAILROAD BRIDGES WHICH ARE USED BY BOTH RAIL AND ROAD TRAFFIC. AN EXISTING BUT UNUSED STEEL TRUSS RAILRAOD BRIDGE SPANNING THE BRAS MORT WILL BE DISASSEMBLED,THEN RECONSTRUCTED FOR RAILROAD USE ALONE USING THE EXISTING PIERS AND ABUTMENTS. A NEW DOUBLE-TRACK RAILROAD BRIDGE WILL BE CONSTRUCTED OVER THE BRAS VIF. THE TWO EXISTING DUAL-PURPOSE BRIDGES WILL SUBSEQUENTLY BE USED FOR VEHICULAR TRAFFIC ONLY. ALSO FUNDED BY THIS PROJECT WILL BE: 1) THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW FREIGHT DEPOT AND SWITCH YARD AT EDEA WITH A SIDING TO THE ALUCAN ALUMINUM PLANT; AND 2) THE RECONSTRUCTION OF A STATION AT MANDJAB (STRAIGHTENING OF TRACK, INSTALLATION OF SWITCHES). THIS PROJECT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CAMEROONIAN RAILWAY AUTHORITY(REGIFERCAM). THE OFFICE DU CHEMIN DE FER TRANSCAMEROONAIS,A PARASTATAL ENGINEERING ORGANIZATION,WILL BE THE OVERALL ADMINISTRATOR OF THE CONSTRUCTION AND WILL UNDERTAKE ALL DESIGN WORK. CONSTRUCTION WILL BE EXECUTED BY AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR SELECTED THROUGH STANDARD COMPETITIVE BIDDING PROCEDURES.