Design complete as Kura acquires land for traffic control centre

All is set for the construction of a traffic control centre in Nairobi as the implementing agency awaits funds to be released by Treasury.

The Kenya Urban Roads Authority has completed the centre's designs and acquired 10 hectares for construction of the building that is aimed to ease traffic congestion on key roads. 

Kura chief corporate communications officer John Cheboi on Tuesday said the building will stand where Cabanas Hotel was—at the junction where the Nairobi–Mombasa highway meets Airport North Road.

“We (Kura) are ready to start construction of the control centre. On Monday, our engineers confirmed having finished the designs and the land is ready. We shall proceed with construction after funds have been made available,” he said.

Last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed Kura, together with the NMS and Namata, to enhance traffic management through the rehabilitation and reintroduction of synchronised traffic lights across the city.

“The control centre will utilise traffic cameras and censors and harmonise location data to provide a synchronised signal at 100 new junctions in addition to the existing traffic lights,” Uhuru said.

Cheboi said it will be an integrated building with several floors housing different stakeholders involved in traffic management in the city.

“The centre will be a three-in-one where the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), commuter rail and traffic will be controlled from. Engineers, traffic police, people who control traffic lights, cameras, road managements will be housed at the centre,” Cheboi explained.

He highlighted that Kura’s first task after groundbreaking of the centre will be to set up 102 new road junctions as directed by the President.

‘Apart from the road junctions, we will be removing some selected roundabouts as we  redesign and signalise 25 new intersections,” Cheboi added.

Funds for the Traffic management centre are from the contract Kenya signed with South Korea on financing development project in Nairobi.

Last August, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani announced that it had secured a loan from the  South Korea Export Import Bank worth Sh6.6 billion ($59 million) to be used to finance BRT line Line 5 (Nyati), which passes along Outer Ring Road, linking the Eastern Bypass to the Thika Superhighway.

The funds will also finance the establishment of improvement of the Nairobi Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) to be done in two phases, with phase two costing Sh10.8 billion.

In November 2019, Huawei, in partnership with Kura, implemented the pilot of the ITS that saw the use of intelligent surveillance cameras, traffic flow cameras and variable timing traffic lights to ease vehicle movement. This saw the removal of at least 100 roundabouts in the city.

So far, the ITS has been implemented in seven major junctions from Yaya Centre along Kilimani and Kileleshwa Ring Roads to Riverside.

“I'm happy that the pilot has matched our expectations in terms of cost-benefit analysis. And now we have the confidence to go to the next level,” Transport CS James Macharia said.

The ITS project was first announced in December 2017 by Kura at a cost of Sh1.4 billion inclusive of a traffic control centre. The project was part of the Nairobi Urban Transport Improvement Programme funded by the World Bank and the government.

Kura was collaborating with WYG, German consultancies, Gauff Consultants and Schlothauer & Wauer GmbH in designing 100 junctions.

The first phase of the ITS project included the installation of modern traffic signalisation systems, such as cameras in 100 major junctions, for Sh340 million.

Cameras at road junctions were expected to capture oncoming traffic through digital number plates embedded with microchips, then feed the information into the Traffic Control Centre.

Speeding will easily be detected and the details of the car captured. Motorists flouting traffic rules will also be captured.