Legal and technical complications are the cause of a dispute in between the Algerian transport authorities and four Japanese contractors over a US$6.56 billion highway project. The financial impact to the Japanese firms, 2811 Hazama, 2809 Kajima, 2807 Nishimatsu Construction and 2808 Taisei could be close to $1 billion. The dispute centres on construction delays to the 1,200km highway project, resulting from the difficult geology of portions of the route. Algeria's highway expansion programme includes the East-West highway link, which connects with neighbouring North African nations Tunisia and Morocco and forms part of the new North African highway running 5,600km from Morocco to Egypt. In an earlier dispute over sections of the East-West highway with Chinese contractors, the Algerian authorities required stretches of the route to be rebuilt as these had not met with quality requirements.
