• The two-lane highway will be expanded into a four-lane dual carriageway that will be further expanded to six lanes at its busiest sections.
• Four-kilometre elevated highway through Nakuru town. Widening Rironi-Mai Mahiu-Naivasha road required to reduce congestion.
Image: FILE
President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed a Sh160 billion deal with a French consortium for the dualling of the Rironi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Highway.
The road will be built by a French company and overseen by the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) through a public-private partnership (PPP) model involving tolls.
The President signed the deal in France with the VINCI Consortium comprising VINCI Highways SAS, Meridian Infrastructure Africa Fund (Miaf), and VINCI Concessions SAS.
The two-lane highway will be expanded into a four-lane dual carriageway that will be further expanded to six lanes at its busiest sections.
The deal was announced on Thursday by Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia.
He said the 233km project will include the strengthening and widening of the existing Rironi-Mai Mahiu-Naivasha road to become a seven-metre carriageway with two-metre shoulders on both sides.
The project will also involve construction of a four-kilometre elevated highway through Nakuru town and construction and improvement of interchanges along the highway, Macharia said.
The Rironi-Mai Mahiu-Naivasha road serves the Naivasha Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the proposed Industrial Park in Naivasha. It also carries traffic to Narok, South Western Kenya and Northern Tanzania.
The ministry said the Rironi-Nakuru-Mai Mahiu road forms a vital part of the most important transport corridor in Kenya, the Northern Corridor that originates in Mombasa and terminates in Malaba.
"The Northern Corridor continues to be an important artery for goods and people moving between the eastern and western parts of Kenya. Several of our land-locked neighbours also rely on the Northern Corridor to transport their sea-bound cargo," Macharia said.
He added that Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan rely on the transport corridor to haul the overwhelming majority of their imports and exports.
The expansion of the Rironi-Nakuru-Mai Mahiu part of the Northern Corridor has been necessitated by high congestion.
Higher traffic volume has been driven by rapid economic growth not only in Kenya but also in neighbouring countries," Macharia said.
Congestion has been worsened by the rapid expansion of many towns along its economic corridor. They include Mai Mahiu, Naivasha, Nakuru and Gilgil, among others.
The road supports a number of industries that have sprung up since the current road was last upgraded.
It carries an estimated 20,000 vehicles per day, the volume expected to grow by four per cent annually.
"In designing and building this modern highway, the government will rationalise the use of scarce road space," Macharia said.
The new highway will also reduce traffic accidents and facilitate the proper management of heavy commercial vehicles. The design allows for efficient connection with the other traffic infrastructure systems both in use and under construction.
"The expansion of the Rironi-Nakuru-Mai Mahiu Road is one of several interventions the government is undertaking to improve mobility on the Northern Corridor," Macharia said.
The other interventions include the 600km standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Naivasha, expansion of the ports of Mombasa and Kisumu and construction of the Nairobi Expressway.
The government is also set to expand the James Gichuru Junction-Rironi road, the Athi River-Machakos turnoff road and the Mombasa-Mariakani road.
The project will be implemented under the PPP financing model whereby the concessionaire will design, finance, build, operate, and maintain the road for a period of time and thereafter hand it over to the government.
The parties to the Commercial Agreement are the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works, through the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), and the French VINCI Consortium comprising of VINCI Highways SAS, Meridian Infrastructure Africa Fund (MIAF), and VINCI Concessions SAS.
(Edited by V. Graham)