Rehabilitation of the lower deck roads which were damaged during the construction of the Nairobi Expressway will begin in less than a month, the government has said.
Speaking on Friday when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Transport, CS Kipchumba Murkomen said there have been concerns by motorists that the lower-deck roads are in bad shape.
"Many Kenyans have very serious concerns about the status and the quality of the road and people are asking that, literally, those who are at the bottom are suffering in terms of using the road and the upside are better," he said.
Murkomen said the contractors have already been identified and are expected on site for the refurbishment works which will take a year.
"The truth is that we are about to start the complete refurbishment of that road and in less than a month, the contractors will be on-site and we will restore the road to its required international standards," he said.
The expressway, a 27-kilometre two-lane carriageway whose construction started in October 2019, was one of former President Uhuru Kenyatta's legacy projects and was built to ease traffic and provide seamless access to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The road starts from Mlolongo and passes through JKIA, the CBD to the James Gichuru junction along Waiyaki Way.
The road was constructed under a public-private partnership (PPP) between the government of Kenya and China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) with a concession for the Chinese firm to recoup its capital over a 30-year period through revenue collection via toll stations.
Uhuru officially opened the Nairobi Expressway on July 31, 2022, following the completion of the trial period.
