The work and the technique: The Trans-Cameroon Railway, Cameroon
When, in 1960, the Republic of Cameroon became independent, its infrastructures were poorly developed. Due to inadequate roads, the old railway between Doula and the capital Yaoundé, completed in 1927, was of significant importance, but was still insufficient for freight transport and for developing the tourist sector. In 1964, the government therefore decided to begin modernizing the existing railway line and to complete the line towards the northern areas of the Country, creating an essential connection between the inside of the country and the Atlantic coast, the agricultural regions and the more industrialized ones. The overall works were awarded to the Italian company Cogefar, which later merge into the Webuild Group.
Works to build the Trans-Cameroon railway line were completed in roughly two decades and were divided into 6 lots. The first lot between Yaoundé and Belabò (296 km) was built between 1964 and 1968; from 1970 to 1974, the extension up to Ngaoundéré (327 km) was completed; from 1975 to 1978, the third section (85 km) between Yaoundé and Maloumé was completed; from 1978 to 1980, the Doula-Edéa section (73 km) was completed; from 1980 to 1982, the last section from Edéa to Eséka was completed (80km). Lastly, between 1983 and 1987, the last 27 km connecting Eséka to Maloumé.
The route was made as straight as possible so as to allow trains to travel at an adequate speed when transporting passengers and goods. The line has been almost entirely built in areas covered by dense vegetation, with features typical of an equatorial forest, also in some areas with swamps. This obviously caused difficulties, both in terms of actual construction and logistics, and the aggravation brought about by the changing climatic seasons, which in some cases caused prohibitive situations such as to halt works.
To respond to this issues and respect (at times also anticipating) the contractual timings, the most cutting-edge equipment was used for that time - greatly useful was communication via radio between the various construction site areas - and works were carried out on various shifts, 24/7.
Ground levelling activities, to build the embankments and trenches for the tracks, required moving loose material and rocks (over 32 million m3 in total). Once the ballasts were built, the tracks were laid: this is one of the most crucial phases when building a railway. Pre-assembly workshops were built along the entire route. They allowed melding long portion of tracks saving a lot of time, reaching impressive peaks, also by using special cranes for over 16 km of line per month. The overall weight of the tracks of the entire line exceeded 62,000 tonnes. To cover the sleepers, with average dimension small rocks with an adequate granulometry, a series of caverns with crushing and screening plants (among the most modern), which can produce over 12,000 m3 of material every month, where placed along the route.
42 stations were also built along the entire line, not just in cities but also near rural areas, creating a modern transport network, 79 concrete bridges, 26 steel bridges, various residential villages for workers. And also, actual maintenance workshops to ensure repairing the immense number of vehicles on the territory.