Historical Background and Purpose of Establishment of Addis Ababa City Road Authority

1.1 Historical Background of the Addis Ababa Road Development

Addis Ababa city was founded by Minellik II and Empress Taitu in 1887. The history of the city’s road development also begins from the inception of the city.

Minellik II constructed the first ever two roads in the city as well as in the country that stretch form Addis Ababa to Addis Alem and form his palace to British embassy in 1902. In 1904 the first roller was imported by the emperor and was being pulled by many people for its operation.

Emperor Minellik was also believed to be the first in importing cars in Addis Ababa and introducing the car technology to the city for the first time in 1907. The country’s modern road construction is highly interlinked with Emperor Haile Selassie’s ruling period.

During the regime of Haile Selassie a number of contractors were organized to carry out road construction.

The first one to be established by the Government to construct roads was public works Department. It was established to construct roads in Addis Ababa and in its surrounding. After a few years this department was raised to a minister level and Addis Ababa also got the chance to establish its road development organizational structure.

When it was decided for Addis Ababa to have a mayor and a council in 1942, the city roads construction and maintenance was organized under the municipality. To fulfill the road construction activities together with building works the “Road and Building works” department was established. This department stayed till the replacement of the Haile Selassie regime by the Derge regime performing its duties. But no fundamental organizational change of the department was observed in the Derg regime.

In 1993 the existing government (EPRDF) has established regional governments with full autonomy. Following this, the Addis Ababa City Administration as one of the newly established regions established the “bureau of works and urban development” and the bureau organized a department under it to carry out the road construction and maintenance works. The newly established road department constructed and maintained the city road till the establishment of the Addis Ababa city roads Authority.

1.2 Establishment of AACRA

Addis Ababa city roads Authority was established in march 15,1998 by regulation no 7/1998 to be administrated by board of directors to construct, maintain and administer the road works in Addis Ababa. The total length of road constructed in the city till the establishment of the authority in March 15, 1998 was 1300km of which 900 km was gravel road and the remaining 400 km was asphalt surfaced road. The Addis Ababa city roads authority has done remarkable progress in the expansion and upgrading of the city roads since its establishment. Currently the city roads length has reached 6573k.m.