As Morocco accelerates its preparations to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal, one of the country’s most consequential construction sites has begun to reshape not just Benslimane’s skyline, but the road network around it. The Grand Stade Hassan II — the sprawling stadium being built to anchor Morocco’s World Cup bid — is now getting a highway upgrade to match, according to Moroccan outlet Hespress.
The National Highway Company of Morocco (Société Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc) has announced significant investments to redesign the road network and interchanges linking the Casablanca–Rabat motorway to the stadium’s surroundings. The total budget for the operation stands at around 39.6 million dirhams.
Two tranches, one goal
The investment is split into two main components.
The first, budgeted at 31.2 million dirhams, covers public lighting and electrical distribution works. Scheduled to run over twelve months, it involves the installation of lighting columns, medium- and low-voltage networks, and power transformers along the reconfigured layouts of provincial road 3304 and its connection to regional road 313 via the Mansouria interchange, all the way through to the triple-laning of provincial road 3308 and the doubling of provincial road 3323.
The second component covers horizontal and vertical road markings and the installation of safety equipment. The National Highway Company has launched an open national call for tenders for this tranche, with an estimated cost of 8,351,740 dirhams excluding taxes. Works are to be completed within five months.
Reshaping the approaches to the stadium
The second tranche will reconfigure provincial road 3308 into a triple-lane road in each direction between the Mohammedia East interchange and National Road 1, and will double provincial road 3304 between regional road 322 and National Road 1, with the creation of a new Mansouria interchange. Provincial road 3304 will also be extended along a dedicated corridor as far as regional road 313, and provincial road 3323 will be doubled at the Bouznika interchange on the Casablanca–Rabat motorway.
Taken together, the upgrades are designed to turn a cluster of rural provincial roads into a functional access grid capable of absorbing the surge of spectators, staff, and logistics traffic that a World Cup venue will generate.
According to the provisional schedule published in March 2026, the public bid-opening session for this second tranche will be held at the National Highway Company’s headquarters in Rabat on September 2, 2026, at 10 a.m.
Fully digital procurement
As part of its broader push to digitize procurement procedures and open public contracts to companies more transparently, the National Highway Company has set the provisional bid guarantee at 80,000 dirhams. It has also stressed that bid submissions will be accepted exclusively through its dedicated online procurement portal — no paper files will be accepted under any circumstances.
The move is a small but telling signal of how the World Cup deadline is not only accelerating Morocco’s infrastructure calendar but also reshaping the administrative habits around it.
