Egypt’s National Road Project: Assessing the Economic Impacts of the Upgraded Transportation Network

In 2014, Egypt started its national road project. This project is one of the greatest achievements in the history of Egyptian roads, and perhaps even all infrastructures. It is designed to connect the country's governorates through a 30% expansion of the existing 23,500 km network of roads. Its costs are currently estimated at $9.8 billion. There are now about two-thirds of the National Roads Project plans; another 1,300 km is still under construction. Another 1,200 km will be built in the near future. The project has enhanced accessibility across the country enriching the opportunity for further expansion into industrial, agricultural and urban areas. Measuring the project's economic impacts would emphasize the project's importance and allow for better targeting of new road projects. In this paper, we explore how the National Road Project likely changed the country's economy at both the national and regional levels. We do this by applying the Computable Spatial General Equilibrium (SCGE) model in Egypt. We found that the project revitalized the national economy by engaging deeply in some of Egypt's least developed governorates. The increased accessibility brought by the corridor has translated into positive efficiency gains at the national and regional levels. The model allows for exploration of the areas most affected by the project and thus could assist planners in allocating infrastructure investments.