The old Mombasa Road will be upgraded to Nairobi Expressway standards as part of the Sh24.8 billion project, which will also see the construction of new footbridges and pedestrian paths, according to a recent statement from the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA).
The work will begin soon once the road sections damaged during the construction of the Expressway have been repaired. This is according to KeNHA Director General Kungu Ndungu. The latter said that the 27-kilometer-long road’s damaged sections of the road are almost completely restored.
Ndungu added that the infrastructure that existed before the Expressway has to be upgraded. As a result, he claimed that KeNHA will improve the old road and implement new facilities, such as footbridges. He further said that they expect to have the contracts in place in roughly eight weeks.
After the ongoing work is concluded, KeNHA added that the state plans to acquire more land to upgrade the old Mombasa Road by widening some sections and constructing pathways. It will also install Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
According to the National Treasury, taxpayers would spend around Sh24.8 billion. A substantial chunk of that would also go towards a payment for the acquisition of the land.
By the end of June last year, the exchequer had released a total of Sh5.93 billion for the toll road. A huge amount was utilized for land compensation during the building of the 27.4-kilometer highway. Another amount was used in the transfer of utilities such as water pipes, power lines, and fiber optics.
A Chinese contractor constructed the Nairobi Expressway, a public-private partnership (PPP) project that connects Westlands to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), for a total of Sh88 billion.
How much money was allocated for the old Mombasa Road rehabilitation?
Additionally, the government allotted Sh9 billion to rehabilitate the contractor-damaged sections of the old Mombasa Road.
The Sh24.8 billion outlay comes on top of contingent liability for the multi-billion project that exposes Kenya’s government to legal action should the project be abandoned before the contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation, has 27 years to recover its investment.
Over the course of its 27-year ownership of the expressway, the Chinese company is expected to make a profit of around Sh106.8 billion.
