• Overpass at GSU Headquarters closed for three months starting Monday
• Construction to improve traffic flow along Outering Road
Image: COURTESY
The overpass at GSU headquarters will remain closed for three months as the Kenya Urban Roads Authority starts construction to ease congestion.
Kura will build a new flyover exchange linking the Outering Road and Thika Super Highway to improve traffic flow at the junction of the two highways.
The junction between the Thika Super Highway and the Outering Road will remain closed from Monday to July 22.
Motorists have been advised to use alternative routes.
Thika Road-bound traffic from Outering Road will use the right-hand side service road of Thika Super Highway and turn right on the underpass at Survey of Kenya.
Airport-bound traffic from the Central Business District through the Outering Road will proceed ahead of Thika Super Highway up to the Garden City Overpass.
Traffic from Outering Road heading back will be forced to drive all the way to survey of Kenya Underpass. Then motorists will turn right and continue up to the Garden City Overpass, turn right again to drive back to access Outering Road.
The new exchange is expected to improve Outering Road and is seen as a game changer for the eastern part of Nairobi where high population density has led to heavy traffic.
Kura communications manager John Cheboi said an interchange plan was suggested after it emerged that the link was not well thought-out.
“There has always been congestion at that junction and the roundabout is not adequate to ease traffic," Cheboi said.
"They looked at the design of Outering Road and the Thika Super Highway and the only rational option was to construct an additional flyover,” he said.
Currently, the road authority is working on the road between Kangundo Road roundabout and Manyanja Road.
A few weeks ago Kura completed a footbridge just next to Mutindwa Market, which will connect pedestrians from Umoja One and Buruburu.
The aim is to have all 11 footbridges erected in the 13km stretch from where Taj Mall stood on North Airport Road to the General Service Unit headquarters in Ruaraka.
The Chinese firm Sinohydro Tianjin Engineering Limited will instal the 11 footbridges for Sh880 million.
The Sh8.5 billion exchange project was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta on January 22, 2015, and is funded by the African Development Bank and the government.
The road was supposed to be completed in September last year but had stalled due compensation issues and relocation of services such as water and electricity.