Banana-Kinshasa High Speed ​​Train “CONGO SPEED WAYS”

The Monorail High Speed ​​Train: a modern means of transport adapted to the socio-economic growth of an Emerging Country in the heart of Africa.

I. Summary

The reception of investments in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become a great necessity at present in the face of the regionalization of the economy to meet the challenge of socioeconomic and environmental development. This need is defined by the creation and expansion of basic infrastructure and first of all the transport networks and communication routes likely to intensify the exchanges and movement of people and their goods in the 26 provinces covered by 5 corridors. output to the 10 neighboring countries.

Indeed, the Congolese networks appear undeniably as factors of development. To realize it, it is enough to travel the extent of the territories to discover there for example: the 145.000Km of the roads, then 16.238km along the river, lake and maritime ways. The railway covers 5,033 km while the air network encompasses 270 aerodromes including 5 international airports.

Unfortunately, these infrastructures have become dilapidated and despite the good intentions to improve them in order to intensify the traffic in hundreds of thousands of tons of goods and travelers from North to South and from East to West over an area of ​​more of 2.345 million km2 with 93.5 million inhabitants waiting to be served.

For reasons of modernity and improvement of conditions of rapid mobility, the DRC must use a mass transport system called -TGV- kind of Monorail, in the absence of metro in order to reduce transit time as well as transport costs. and increase the economy of scale covering the entire territory and the sub-region. In view of its comparative advantage in terms of favorable areas considered as a sub-continent, there is the possibility of succeeding in this very important project.

The ideal is to modernize 10,800Km of monorail on the first line between Banana and Aru, Via Kinshasa, Mbandaka and Kisangani, then the second between Kinshasa and Sakania via Mwene-Ditu, Kamina and Sakania. Monorail is a convenient and suitable system for long journeys and urban networks with an average speed of 250 to 350Km / h. The first phase will begin on a 485 km section on the line between Kinshasa and Banana via 16 stations with about thirty relay stations for a period of 4 years of works at a rate of 121.1 km per year.

The interim investment will amount to 1.66 billion dollars with an advantage in the supply of raw materials, steelworks, plumbing, reinforcement, sands, cement works, carpentry and others by Congolese manufacturing industries. This investment will create the “snowball” effect for the employment of more than 6,200 direct jobs and 6.2 million indirect jobs in the various sectors linked to the transport sector and communication routes.

Thus, the economy of this project is structured in three parts as follows:

  • The first one ; presentation of Congo Speed ​​Ways
  • The second ; monorail feasibility study
  • The third ; the strategic and financial importance of Congo Speed ​​Ways

PART ONE: CONGO SPEED WAYS

I.1. Signage of the Congo Speed ​​Ways Consortium

  • Consortium: Donors, GRV, and Congolese State
  • Partners: National Agency for the Promotion of Investment, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Land Affairs, SCPT.
  • Company name: Congo Speed ​​Ways sarl
  • Headquarters: Kinshasa –Gombe
  • Legal nature: Public Limited Company and Mixed Economy
  • Social objective: Improvement and Modernization of Transport and Communication Routes
  • Market: High Speed ​​Train: Monorail (modern trains)
  • Activity sector: Transport and Communication Routes
  • Contractor’s mode: International Call for Tender
  • Form of contract: PPP – BOT
  • Duration of the partnership contract: Indefinite
  • Project duration: 10 years and 2 years of rescheduling
  • Investment cost: $ 1,664. 540,600 $ Usd;
  • Investment interest rate: 10%
  • Donors’ participation: Usd 1.544.540.600 $
  • Participation of the Congolese State: Usd $ 120,000,000
  • Credit interest rate: 6% per year
  • Credit term: 4 years with two years grace period
  • Project manager: Congolese State
  • Client: IBC and Donors
  • Workforce ; 80% local and 20% international
  • Outsourcing of services: 20%
  • Duration of work: 4 years
  • Start of monorail traffic: 5th year with a one-month break-in
  • Traffic line: Kinshasa-Banana
  • Type of traffic: Freight and Travelers
  • Traffic schedule: 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 3 p.m.
  • Sections: 485Km
  • Section per year: 121.1Km
  • Number of stations: 16
  • Base of Terminals; Banana and Kinshasa
  • Relay stations: 35
  • Equipment and materials of the work: Imported
  • Site materials: 80% local

I.2 Monorail

I.2.1 Presentation

  • A –TGV- monorail is a guided transport system where the body of the vehicle greatly exceeds the width of the single track, and where this single track is a rigid rail or beam, that is to say not a cable.
  • We can distinguish three types depending on the method used to stabilize the vehicle:
      • the vehicles sit astride the rail
      • vehicles are suspended under the rail
      • vehicles maintain balance with a gyroscope using different propulsion and lift techniques (wheels, air cushion, magnetic levitation, etc.)
  • This system is often used to transport travelers on relatively short routes or circuits (airport service, trade fair, for example).
  • The term monorail can also refer to the vehicle itself. Each shuttle can carry 60 to 75 comfortably seated passengers or 10 tonnes of goods in refrigerated or non-refrigerated containers.
  • These shuttles run in the opposite direction, in mode on two rails supported at about 12.5 meters from the ground. These rails are an infrastructure made up of a single continuous steel truss (triangle structure) which is supported by pylons firmly anchored to the ground and spaced approximately 40 to 50 meters from each other.
  • The infrastructure is frost proof on the ground, and vehicles can weather any storm since the rails and wheel motors are covered with a metal dome that protects them from rain, snow and ice, and therefore, do not require snow removal in winter. The system is fully electrified and non-polluting.
    I.2.2 Structure of the monorail
  • The monorail structure must support two 15 ton shuttles between two pylons spaced about 50 meters apart The middle bridge must be 60 meters in length and 38 tons of side structures to support 78 tons (deck = 44 tons + semi-trailers = 34 tons ).
  • The dimensions of the various steel beams, uprights and tie rods, as well as the dimensions of the wooden beams and planks, and by multiplying the volumes of these materials by their respective density (7.85 tonnes / m3 for steel and 450 kg / m3 for wood).

  • The horizontal steel structure for the monorail, which must support 30 tons over a 50-meter span, will have to weigh less than 30 tons. For the fifteen meter pylons of the monorail, the project will have to be based on the Vestas V52 wind turbine of 850 kW. Its 49-meter tower weighs 50 tons and supports a 22-ton nacelle and a ten-ton rotor (32 tons in all). Assuming that half of the steel in the tower ends up in the first fifteen meters, we will have 25 tons of steel which will support 57 tons (32 + 25).
  • 30 tonnes of horizontal steel structure and 30 tonnes of steel pylons, or 60 tonnes of steel, will therefore be provided every 50 meters.
  • Stations and garages to store and maintain shuttles.
  • A garage will be needed in Moanda and the others in Kinshasa, each capable of containing around forty shuttles, because the expansion of the monorail network from the sections must be provided for. It is also necessary to build 16 stations and 35 stations. In addition, on the outskirts of two provinces of Kinshasa and Kongo Central, the route of the monorail will further disrupt. Ideally, it would be good to negotiate with the owners of the tracks that go to the train stations, so that the monorail can pass over the trains, on the right-of-way of the tracks. This would avoid tunnels or expropriations.

Table n ° 1 Cost of rotating works for the 485 km monorail in US dollars