Roads under the Nairobi Regeneration Programme will be completed by end of July, Kenya Urban Roads Authority has said.
Kura director general Silas Kinoti said the project was more than 50 per cent complete.
“We are optimistic that all the 38 roads will be completed in five months time,” Kinoti said on Friday.
The Sh2.87 billion is being spent on road network in Eastlands.
Most roads are often impassable during the rainy seasons.
Kinoti spoke when he appeared before the Nairobi county assembly transport committee.
He said the agency had divided the project into three slots of 32-kilometre, 25.5-kilometre and 22.8-kilometre road networks.
The contracts were awarded to three Chinese companies. Stecol Corporation got Sh950.6 million contracts while China Roads and Bridges Corporation was awarded Sh1 billion worth of the project.
China Wu Yi Company received a tender for Sh895.6 million.
Kinoti said the rehabilitation was ongoing on Ambira & Sakwa, Manyanja, Kayole Spine, Maasai, Airport North, Utawala, Hamza, Rabai, Nile, Bumbani, Heshima, Buruburu Farmers and Lunga Lunga roads.
“Most of the works kicked off last year in September and some of the roads are almost done,” Kinoti said.
The project is a collaboration with the Nairobi county government which was to contribute Sh900 million.
Kinoti said City Hall has only remitted Sh100 million. “That has not hindered the progress of the project,” he said.
The agency urged pedestrians to be careful on the road to avoid accidents.
RECORD OF FATALITIES
A Comparative Statistics Trends report for 2017-2018 shows Nairobi had the highest record of fatalities.
Most of the accidents happened along Outering Road. Another report by the National Transport and Safety Authority last year ranked Outering as the deadliest city road with 31 deaths.
Other dangerous roads include Mombasa Road and Waiyaki Way.
The reports said the roads did not have adequate measures to facilitate effective non-motorised transport.
“The problem is not the design, but how people use roads as non-motorised traffic. We have set up walkways and designated areas where pedestrians are supposed to cross but many of them prefer to jump over guard rails,” Kinoti said.
He said it was unfortunate that pedestrians still dare to cross the busy roads even when police were deployed at those crossing points.
He said Outering Road was opened before completion because there was pressure to make the carriage way operational.
“A lot of work needs to be done to ensure that the road is okay in terms of safety and movement of traffic.”
The 13-km stretch has only four footbridges erected out of the 11 that were designed to be put up.