Autoroutes of Morocco

Map of Moroccan highways and expressways

Casablanca-Rabat expressway (A1) going northbound near Temara

Morocco's network of motorways is administered by the state-owned company Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM). It runs the network on a pay-per-use basis, with toll stations placed along its length. The general speed limit is 120 km/h.

History

The first expressway in the country was the A1 Casablanca-Rabat. Construction of the first section started in 1975. Completion of this road between the economic and the administrative capitals took 13 years. Originally, use of the road was free of charge. The toll-road system was introduced as one measure to prevent lengthy construction times, as happened with this first road. Finding investors for new roads would be easier if these roads generated their own revenue to repay investors.

Realized

In 2006, it was announced that ADM would be investing 6.18 billion dirhams ($859 million) to develop its highway network in 2007. These investment packages were part of the objective that aimed to complete 1,500 km by 2012.

As of August 2016, ADM managed 1808 km of Morocco's toll roads. As of November 2016 the total length of Morocco's motorways is 1,808 kilometres (paid) and 1,093 kilometres (free) expressways.

Planned

The Kingdom of Morocco is planning investments of around €23 billion in road construction until 2035. The Moroccan government has announced that more than 5,500 kilometres of new highways and expressways are to be constructed, this will be an investment totalling €8.8 billion. This includes 700 km of 3x2 roads that will be constructed.

Also 45,000 km of new rural roads will be created in rural areas and the modernization of 7,000 km of rural roads. It is part of new plan of the Moroccan Ministry of Transport, which will invest 660 billion dirhams in the transport and logistics sector.

Ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, Morocco is taking on a €650 million loan from the African Development Bank to improve the infrastructure of the country to develop air, road and rail connections throughout the country. As of spring 2025, there are 2,177 km of roads in the country. And of the new projects to be built in time for the World Cup, the government unveiled a plan to invest MAD 12.5 billion ($1.25 billion) into its roads infrastructure, a development that already invests MAD 3 billion ($300 million) annually to maintain the roads.

List of motorways

Principal motorways

Ref	From	To	Via	Length	Notes
A1	Rabat	Safi	Mohammedia, Casablanca, El Jadida	313 km
A2	Rabat	Oujda	Khemisset, Meknes, Fes, Taza, Guercif, Taourirt	494 km
A3	Casablanca	Agadir	Berrechid, Settat, Ben Guerir, Marrakesh, Imintanoute	429 km
A31	Tit Mellil	Berrechid	Mediouna, Deroua, A4/A3 Interchange	31 km
A4	Berrechid	Beni Mellal	Khouribga	174 km
A5	Port Tanger Med	Rabat	Kenitra, Salé	308 km
A7	Fnideq	Tétouan	M'diq, Marina Smir	28 km
A?	Guercif	Nador			Under construction as of late 2025
A?	Rabat	Casablanca			A second motorway under construction between Rabat and Casablanca to alleviate traffic and pressure

Bypasses

Ref	Name	Length	Notes
A101	Ain Harrouda Bypass	24 km
A102	Azbane Bypass	1.5 km
A103	El Jadida Bypass	5.5 km
A201	Fes Bypass	11 km
A301	Marrakech Palmeraie Bypass	13.5 km
A501	Tangier West Bypass	1.5 km

Under construction

Motorways under construction

Ref	From	To	Via	Length	Notes
	Guercif	Nador
	Rabat	Casablanca

The construction history of these expressways by segment is as follows:

Moroccan Expressways

	from		to	length in km	construction period	avg costs MDH/km	notes
Casablanca			Rabat	62	forming the A3 motorway
	using:	Casablanca	Oued Cherrat	33,5	1975–1978
	and:	Oued Cherrat	Rabat	25.5	1983–1987
Rabat			Larache	150		13
	using:	Rabat	Kénitra	40	1993–1995
	and:	Kénitra	Larache	110	1993–1996
Larache			Sidi El yamani	28	1996–1999
Sidi El yamani			Asilah	15	2000–2002
Asilah			Tanger	30	2002–2005
		together forming the A1 Rabat-Tangier expressway
Rabat			Fès	167		14.4
	using	Rabat	Khemiset	66	1996–1999
	and	Fes	Khemiset	116	1995–1998
Casablanca			Settat	57	1998–2001	17.5
Casablanca bypass				27	2000–2004	25	built in two phases
Casablanca			Safi	255.5
	using	Casablanca	Had Soualem	16	2001–2004	18
	and	Had Soualem	Tnine Chtouka	35	2002–2005	20
	and	Tnine Chtouka	El Jadida	28	2004–2006	26
	and	El Jadida	Safi	143	2012–2016	30
Settat			Marrakesh	162	2004–2007
Tanger-Med connector				54	2004–2008	73
Tétouan			Fnideq	28	2004–2008	36	last 11 km opened 21-07-08

Road safety

In 2007 762 crashes with casualties were reported, a 5% increase on 2006. The crash-rate per 100 million traveled kilometers dropped by 20% from 30.2 to 24.1 between these years, but the total number as well as rate of deaths didn't go down.

A breakdown of these figures:

Moroccan Expressways Safety

Type crash		2006	2007	% change	notes
serious crashes		726	762	+5%	is crash with serious inj. or deaths
	rate per 100 mln km.	30,2	24.1	-20%
fatal crashes		74	86	+16%	is crash with at least one death
	rate per 100 mln km.	3,1	2,7	-12%
serious injuries		480	535	+11%
	is per 100 mln km.	20,0	16,9	-15%
deaths		90	127	+41%
	is per 100 mln km.	3,7	4,0	+7%

Increasing road-safety

Increasing safety is an important goal for the ADM: the new autoroutes are designed to improve safety and the ADM also believes that extending the express-way network will increase overall safety as the through-going (and often high-speed) traffic is moved away from the Route Nationals, that run through the cities and villages along the way. Expressways also use non-level crossings and because there is no oncoming traffic overtaking cars is safer than on normal roads. The ADM also publishes traffic violence figures to increase the attention of the public in road-safety.

In the first quarter of 2011 the number of crashes on expressways with injuries fell 21% compared to the same period in 2010

See also

• List of toll roads
• Société Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc

External links

Media related to Autoroutes in Morocco at Wikimedia Commons