The expansion of the 25km James
Gichuru-Rironi road stretch on Waiyaki
Way into a superhighway has started.
Chinese firm Wu Yi has been contracted
by the roads authority to
upgrade the road and has started
uprooting trees to pave way for the
expansion.
Yesterday, Wu Yi workers were in
Kangemi, uprooting trees between the
two lanes and levelling the ground.
“We have three years to complete
this work and we are going to make
sure we stick to the timeline,” a Chinese
engineer told the Star.
Wu Yi won the Sh16.4 billion tender
in July to expand the stretch to a sixlane
highway within 36 months. The
stretch starts from the James Gichuru
Road junction to the Mai Mahiu turnoff
on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway.
Kenha director general Peter Mundia
said the project will be funded by
the World Bank and the government
under the National Urban Transport
Improvement Project.
“The project is expected to ease
traffic flow into and out of the city of
Nairobi, and is one of the three major
projects earmarked to decongest
the city along the Northern Corridor
alignment,” he said.
Major works that will be done on
the project will include construction
of 44km of six-metre wide service
roads, as well as the construction of
3.4m wide non-motorised transport
lanes on either side of the entire highway
to ensure road users’ safety.
“A new storm drainage system will
also be built to drain excess rain and
ground water from the road and sidewalks,”
Mundia said.
He said the highway will have 13
bridges at interchange locations, 21
pedestrian overpasses and five underpasses.
The upgrade is part of a World
Bank-funded mega roads expansion
project to decongest Nairobi that involves
conversion of the 45.2km road
between the Jomo Kenyatta International
Airport and Rironi into a superhighway.
“The other components, which will
be implemented in due course, are
capacity enhancement and reconstruction
of the JKIA to Likoni Road
junction and capacity enhancement
and reconstruction of the Likoni Road
junction to the James Gichuru Road
junction,” Mundia said.