A consortium led by Vinci Construction has signed a contract with the Gambia River Basin Development Organisation to build the Sambangalou dam in Senegal, close to the Guinean border.

The €388 million contract awarded to the consortium – which includes Vinci Construction Grands Projets, and Vinci Construction Terrassement, subsidiaries of VINCI Construction (75% of the consortium), and Andritz (25%) – follows on from an initial phase conducting studies and preparatory work, which took place over a period of 18 months.

The 91m high dam will have a capacity of 128MW, generating renewable energy, improving irrigation of farm land and supplying drinking water for surrounding districts. The work will begin in the first half of 2021 and is scheduled to last 48 months. At its peak, the project will employ 1000 people recruited and trained locally.

In addition, once the project has been delivered, the drinking water treatment station set up for the project will be remain in operation. The worksite buildings will be donated to schools. Engineers from the consortium will also be involved in classes at the Kédougou technical high school.

The electricity generated by the dam will be injected into the grid of the four countries of the Gambia River Basin Development Organisation - The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal