NAIROBI, KENYA – The construction of an eight-lane highway on Thika Road begins on Monday. This follows the Government’s signing of a Sh27 billion contract with three Chinese road construction firms.

Acting Roads Minister Chris Obure, yesterday said the construction of the first modern highway in East and Central Africa will take 30 months to complete.

Obure said the 50.4km highway expansion project would open a new chapter in the construction of roads.

Chinese firms, China Wu Yi Company, Synohydro Corporation Ltd and Shengli Engineering Construction, have been contracted for the project.

“Thika highway has been made possible today, with the support of African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of Kenya, we envisage the completion of a model road in the region in 30 months,” Obure said.

He said the highway will have all the T-junctions done away with, and extra features such as flyovers, underpasses, interchanges, pedestrian grade separators, cross drainage system and modern street lighting to Thika town, introduced.

It will also have a well-lit underpass and a flyover between Uhuru Highway and Muthaiga, and Kenyatta University.

The highway starts at Globe Cinema roundabout. Highway designers have proposed the construction of four major interchanges between Globe Cinema and Ruiru and three underpasses between Globe Cinema and Kasarani.

The interchanges will replace the roundabouts, blamed for unwinding traffic jams.

Incidents of pedestrians being knocked by speeding vehicles have also been addressed. Pedestrian separators will be built along the highway.

The minister also said his ministry would work with that of the Nairobi Metropolitan Development to re-plan roads in the city to ensure parking yards are outside the central business district.

Obure also cautioned the three contractors, saying the Government would not tolerate unnecessary delays.

He said plans to expand major roads across the country were underway and warned wananchi against building on the road reserves.

He said the Government was also planning a major expansion of the Outering Road, which connects Mombasa Road and Uhuru Highway to Thika Road.

Kangundo Road, Bomas–Ongata Rongai, Langata, Jogoo, Juja, Kiambu, Limuru, Waiyaki Way and Mbagathi/Valley roads are among those whose expansion programmes the minister said donors have agreed to fund.

Obure said studies are being conducted on a proposal to introduce a Light Rail transport and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) within Nairobi to decongest the city.

“There is a study going on under the Nairobi-Thika highway improvement project to look into how we can make this a reality, I want Kenyans to know we are not just talking, we are going to make it happen,” he said.

He said once the proposed city by-passes covering 110km are built, access to the city centre would be easier and wastages resulting from congestion minimised.

Funds for the construction of the Northern, Eastern and Southern by-passes have been set aside.

He said the European Community and the African Development Bank are among the main donors.

“I hate seeing damages associated with demolitions when we are preparing to start a road project, but I want Kenyans to know roads cannot be built on air, we shall demolish encroaching structures because we want to build roads,” Obure said.

The Government has now put more emphasis on road constructions and three state agencies have been created to handle the planning and building of various roads.

Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) will now take charge of various clusters of roads after they were created a few months ago.

On Thursday, the Government appointed Meshack Otieno, Joseph ole Nkadayo and Mwangi Maingi as Director Generals of the road authorities.

- By Isaac Ongiri | The Standard