Traffic gridlocks in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, are expected to ease significantly when construction of a planned double-decker road, the city’s first, is completed in about three years.
Kenya National Highways Authority director-general Meshack Kidenda says government will soon float a tender for the $286-million project.
The elevated highway, which will run above the existing Mombasa road, Uhuru Highway and Waiyaki Way, covering a distance of 4 km, is part of the National Urban Improvement Project, which comprises several components and is aimed at tackling the transport crisis in East Africa’s busiest city.
Construction of the road, which is being financed by the World Bank and the Kenya government, is expected to start in January next year and be completed in 2017. The Kenya government will contribute $113-million of the project cost.
The double-decker road project will entail the provision of additional lanes, the construction of new access roads and the rehabilitation of existing roads to help ease congestion and facilitate faster movement of traffic from the suburbs into the city.
Nairobi is one of the most populous cities in Africa, with a population of four-million people in an area of 696 km2. The Kenya government estimates that the city’s population will increase to 6.5-million by 2030.
The National Urban Improvement Project forms part of the $4.4-billion transport master plan to get Nairobi out of the current chaos and connect it with its satellite towns through a state-of-the-art mass transport system.
The plan, being executed under the Vision 2030 development blueprint, involves the construction of 167 km of public roads and rail tracks linking Nairobi with neighbouring towns in a bid to decongest the city.