Because of its sensitive location near the Prime Minister’s office, this river improvement and public greenspace project in the Ethiopian capital had to forgo typical stone blasting in favor of specialized large-scale earth blasting and excavation to remove 210,000 cu m of stone to develop key areas of the park.
The Ethiopia-Kenya Power Systems Interconnection Project—the first phase of eastern Africa’s $1.3-billion power integration initiative—is set for takeoff after the World Bank approved $684 million in construction funds for the project in June, even as global environmental groups step up pressure to halt the work.