EBOMAF-CI: The Ivorian authorities satisfied with Kong and Korhogo airport projects

Major works initiated by the Ivorian State include projects to build and rehabilitate airports. The airport infrastructure of the cities of Kong and Korhogo, in northern Côte d'Ivoire, has been entrusted to EBOMAF.

Since then, the successful bidder has set out on the Kong site, which is intended for the Ivorian army but is also expected to receive civilian aircraft. About 140 Km from there, in Korhogo, capital of the Poro region, it is a new terminal that takes shape at great steps.

These two airport infrastructure are major investments in the development of air transport in Côte d'Ivoire.

In order to ensure the progress of the work, the Ivorian Minister of Transport, Amadou Koné, visited the two construction sites, on 16 and 17 September 2022, in the localities concerned. He was accompanied, at the Kong stage, by the Minister of Defence, Téné Birahima Ouattara, also president of the Tchologo Regional Council on which Kong depends.

It is a feeling of total satisfaction that the two authorities expressed after the review of the work already carried out. However, they instructed stakeholders, including EBOMAF, the National Bureau for Technical Studies and Development (BNETD), the project manager, and Sodexam, the delegated contractor, to speed up the work on this infrastructure's strategic and development issues.

Built on an area of 600 hectares, the military-civilian airport in Kong is at 27.38 per cent of the completion rate for a consummated completion time of 42.22 per cent in September 2022. Its runway will be 1900 m long by 30 m wide. Its construction currently involves 300 workers.

In Korhogo, the work is much more advanced. Again, the minister, Amadou Koné, did not fail to address a satisfecit to EBOMAF in view of what is achieved with art and rigour. The President of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, has decided to modernize and boost the transport sector. For air transport, this translates into an extensive programme of rehabilitation of existing airfields, the resumption of domestic flights by the company Air Côte d'Ivoire, the construction of new airport infrastructure for a better national service.

It is also from this perspective that work began at the airports of Bouaké, San Pedro, Korhogo and Odienné with some work already carried out in 2014-2015. This work will continue at several other airports, including Man. We also come from Kong where there will be a military airport that will also be used by civil aviation. (...) We are really happy with the implementation of these projects," he said at the end of the guided tour of the site, which already has a 55% implementation rate.

In Korhogo, the works are subdivided into two main ones. Lot 1 covers the construction of the terminal and the temporary parking lot, the asphalting of the road (2,400 metres), the construction of the security fence (9.4 metres), the extension and strengthening of the aircraft movement area (2100 metres), the construction and equipment of the new terminal (R+1) and the construction of the 120-seat car park. Funded to the tune of CFAF 30 billion, the promotion rate for this lot is estimated at 42% at September 2022.

As for Lot 2, it concerns the earthmoving and installation of the ILS/DME (Instrument landing system, a means of radionavigation used for aircraft precision approach) and DME: Distance measuring equipment, a radio carrier that allows to give the distance between an aircraft and the aerodrome. Funded at CFAF 23 billion, its promotion rate is 72%. That is, an overall rate of advancement of 55%.

SS/JESP