Moroccan High Speed Rail

KEY INFORMATION

Name: High speed railway infrastructure between Casablanca and Tangier 
Client: Groupement Claudio Salini SPA and S. Matarrese SPA     
Date: 2012-2013 
Size: 200 km        
Location: From Casablanca to Tangier via Rabat  

PROJECT SUMMARY

SOCOTEC, the leading company in testing, inspection and certification (TIC) for construction and infrastructure, conducted an exhaustive external inspection of all the design documents for the construction of a High Speed Line (LGV) between Casablanca and Tangier in Morocco.

PROJECT DETAILS

To link Casablanca and Tangier via Rabat, the country’s capital, the Moroccan National Railway (ONCF) decided to create high-speed railway infrastructure over a length of around 200 km.

The aim was to reduce the journey time between Tangier and Rabat to 1 hour 20 minutes instead of 3 hours 40 minutes, and 2 hours 10 minutes between Tangier and Casablanca instead of 5 hours. 

As part of the project, the Moroccan ONCF opted for viaducts to cross the wetlands, including the Loukkos viaduct, a 2,400-metre long structure. To build the first high-speed rail link in Africa, inaugurated on 15 November 2018, the Claudio Salini SPA and S.Matarrese SPA consortium awarded SOCOTEC, trusted third-party experts operating in construction risk management, a contract to carry out an exhaustive external inspection of all the design documents.

This service involved all infrastructure: roadway, piers, abutments, foundations and equipment. The testing points were solidity, stability, durability, dynamic and seismic behaviour, as well as the fatigue of the designs and works of this railway infrastructure.