Ministers Visit Mauratania-Senegal Rosso Bridge Construction Site

At the start of February 2025, Ministers of Mauritania and Senegal undertook a site inspection at the Rosso Bridge to take stock of the progress. The construction kicked off in November 2021 and was expected to take 30 months. Initially estmated at EUR 88 million, the cost of the bridge is now projected to exceed EUR 100 million due to delays and other unforeseen challenges.

The bridge is 1.5 kilometer in length and links up the South Mauritania with North Senegal near a village called Rosso. The bridge is a key infrastructure component of the Trans-African Highway (TAH) network, in particular the Alger-Daka and Tanger-Lagos links which will facilitate connectivity between West Africa, the Sahel and the Maghreb.

The EU offered a grant of EUR 20 million, while the EIB and AfDB provided loans of EUR 21 million and EUR 82 million respectively. The Governments of Mauritania and Senegal fill in the rest. The AfDB is proud to have also finance the SeneGambia bridge.

The Chinese contractor Poly Changda Overseas Engineering Construction Company won the tender to execute the works. As of February, the works appear to have been completed to 32%. The Ministers urged the project managers and contractor to keep on schedule in order to complete delivery by July 2026.