General description:
Trunk roads: the T1 is known as the TANZAM highway and leads from Dar es Salaam to
Zambia (and on to Lusaka). The road from Chalinze to Kenya is the T2. The main road from Dar es Salaam is the T7. Other 1-d roads are mostly main national links. Higher numbers are used for less important roads.
Regional roads have 3-digit numbers. They are almost never paved.
Numbers are assigned roughly per province from north to south, with numbers beginning with the same digit forming zones, except for numbers beginning with 5. The provinces are ordered in rows from west to east.
Roads starting in one province keep their number when they cross a provincial border.
Only Arusha and Manyara do not seem to have their own ranges and just share numbers between 200 and 240.
Why is it called a trunk road?
Historically,
the phrase "trunk road" in an Irish context referred to the main routes in the first Irish road numbering system, which were known as Trunk Roads and given the prefix letter of "T".
How many roads are in Tanzania?
86,472 km
The road network in Tanzania currently comprises
86,472 km of roads, of which 12,786 km are trunk roads, 21,105 km are regional roads and the remaining 52,581 km are district, urban and feeder roads.
Transport in Tanzania includes road, rail, air and maritime networks. The road network is 86,472 kilometres (53,731 mi) long, of which 12,786 kilometres (7,945 mi) is classified as
trunk road and 21,105 kilometres (13,114 mi) as regional road.
[1] The rail network consists of 3,682 kilometres (2,288 mi) of track.
Commuter rail service is in
Dar es Salaam only. There are 28 airports, with
Julius Nyerere International being the largest and the busiest. Ferries connect Mainland Tanzania with the islands of Zanzibar. Several other ferries are active on the countries' rivers and lakes.
Trunk roadsEdit
An example of one of the trunk roads.
Trunk road, Kilimanjaro.
- Dar es Salaam and Dodoma (451 kilometres (280 mi) entirely paved):[3] The A-7 road links Dar es Salaam and Morogoro. The B-129 road then connects Morogoro with Dodoma.
- Dar es Salaam and Iringa (492 kilometres (306 mi)[3] entirely paved): The A-7 road links these cities.
- Dar es Salaam and Tanga (354 kilometres (220 mi)[3] entirely paved): The A-7 road links Dar es Salaam and Chalinze. The A-14 road then connects Chalinze with Tanga.
- Dar es Salaam and Mtwara (556 kilometres (345 mi)[3] entirely paved): The B-2 road links these cities.
[4] The remainder of the road to Dar es Salaam is paved. The long
Mkapa Bridge is on this stretch of road, spanning the
Rufiji River.
- Tanga and Arusha (435 kilometres (270 mi)[3] entirely paved): The A-14 road connects Tanga and Segera. From there, the B-2 road connects Segera with the road's terminus at the Himo Junction. The A-23 road then leads west to Moshi and Arusha.
- Dodoma and Mwanza on Lake Victoria (701 kilometres (436 mi)[3] (entirely paved): The B-129 road leads west to Manyoni, followed by the B-141 road north to Singida. From there, the B-3 road leads mostly west to Nzega. The final stretch is on the B-6 road through Shinyanga to Mwanza.[5][6][7]
- Dar es Salaam and the border with Rwanda at Rusomo Falls (1,281 kilometres (796 mi) (entirely paved): From Nzega in the Tabora Region, the B-3 road leads to the Rwandan border (380 km (240 mi)).
- Kigoma and the border with Burundi at Manyovu: The road is entirely paved.
- Mwanza and Musoma (218 kilometres (135 mi)[3] entirely paved): The B-6 road connects these cities and then proceeds north to the Kenyan border.
- Arusha and Namanga on the Kenyan border (106 kilometres (66 mi): The A-104 road is entirely paved.
- Iringa and Mbeya (330 kilometres (210 mi)[3] entirely paved): The A-104 road links these cities, with its terminus in Tunduma on the Zambian border.
Trunk roads in Tanzania were marked by numbers following the two-tier number system with prefixes A- and B-, as is practiced in the rest of East Africa.
[8] Following is the list of Tanzanian trunk roads.
[9] Meanwhile Tanzania has introduced a numbering system for trunk roads using numbers starting with "T"
[10] but so far the "A" designations are visible if at all.
| Road No. | Length | Span | Via | Status | Remarks |
|---|
| A7 | 492 km | Dar es Salaam - Iringa | Chalinze - Morogoro - Mikumi | Paved | |
| A14 | 315 km | Chalinze - Horohoro | Segera - Tanga | Paved | Continues in Kenya up to Mombasa |
| A19 | 620 km | Masasi - Mbamba Bay | Tunduru - Songea - Mbinga | Paved/Unpaved | Paved: Masasi - Ngomano Road (56 km) and Namtumbo - Mbinga (168 km) |
| A23 | 117 km | Arusha - Holili | Moshi | Paved | Continues in Kenya up to Voi |
| A104 | 1,218 km | Tunduma- Namanga | Mbeya - Iringa - Dodoma - Kondoa - Arusha | Paved | Entirely part of Cairo-Cape Town Highway, recently paved: Dodoma - Babati (257 km) |
| B1 | 263 km | Segera - Himo | | Paved | Connects A14 with A23 |
| B2 | 561 km | Dar es Salaam - Mtwara | Kilwa - Lindi | Paved | Paved 30 km road to Kilwa Masoko from Nangurukuru |
| B3 | 625 km | Singida - Rusumo Falls | Nzega - Isaka - Kahama | Paved | Runs with B6 Nzega - Tinde (42 km), Continues as RN3 in Rwanda up to Kigali |
| B4 | 293 km | Makambako - Songea | Njombe | Paved | |
| B5 | 120 km | Mingoyo - Masasi | | Paved | Connects B2 to A19 |
| B6 | 1,071 km | Makogolosi - Sirari | Rungwa - Tabora - Shinyanga - Mwanza | Paved/Unpaved | Paved: Nzega - Sirari (524 km), Runs with B3 Nzega - Tinde (42 km) |
| B8 | 1,128 km | Kasesha - Mutukula | Sumbawanga - Mpanda - Kasulu - Biharamulo - Bukoba | Paved/Unpaved | Paved: Lusahunga (B3) - Mutukula (287 km) |
| B129 | 388 km | Morogoro - Manyoni | Dodoma | Paved | |
| B141 | 308 km | Rungwa - SIngida | Itigi - Manyoni | Paved/Unpaved | Paved: Itigi - Singida (160 km) |
| B143 | 151 km | Singida - Babati | | Paved | |
| B144 | 390 km | Makuyuni - Kukirango | Karatu - Ngorongoro - Serengeti National Park | Paved/Unpaved | Paved: Makuyuni - Ngorongoro (79 km), rest can't be paved because it's a National Park |
| B163 | 230 km | Usagara - Biharamulo | Sengerema - Geita | Paved/Unpaved | Unpaved: Bwanga - Biharamulo (68 km), a paved road runs via Chato to go to Bukoba |
| B182 | 171 km | Nyakasanza - Kyaka | Kimisi - Burigi Game Reserve - Omurushaka | Paved/Unpaved | Paved: Omurushaka - Kyaka (57 km), connects B3 to B8 |
| B182 W | 111 km | Omurushaka - Murongo | | Unpaved | Branches from B182 and runs up to Murongo border crossing with Uganda |
| 173 km | Bulahu - Lamadai | Bariadi | Paved/Unpaved | Paved: Bariadi - Lamadai (72 km), marked as trunk road by TANROADS but no number |
| 59 km | Nyakasanza - Kobero | Ngara - Kabanga | Paved | Branches from B3 up to Kobero border crossing with Burundi, continues as RN6 there |
Naamini itakupa picha ya kilichoongelewa