The newly constructed Nairobi Expressway will now be re-designed and modified to allow ease access to the Nairobi Central Business District.
Also, three pedestrian footbridges will be built at the Katani station, Syokimau standard gauge railway station, and the Airtel complex sections of the 27-kilometre road, the Kenya National Highways Authority(KeNHA) has announced.
The agency called for bids to have the secondary works undertaken.
The footbridges form part of changes marked to improve user convenience and pedestrian safety on the expressway constructed at a cost of Sh87.9billion.
Once the modification works are complete, motorists from Westlands will land at Nyayo House while those from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) will henceforth land at Haile Selassie Avenue or Green park bus terminus.
The Expressway and the Southern, Western, and Northern by-passes are part of infrastructure projects aimed at decongesting the Nairobi CBD and its satellite areas.
The tolling highway was to be fully financed by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), the parent firm of China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), which built highway.
Moja Expressway, a subsidiary of CCCC, is operating the road for 27 years to recoup its investment through toll fees.
The cost of building the Nairobi Expressway rose to Sh87. 9 billion, from the Sh65.2 billion initial budget estimate initially provided by KeNHA.
Also, the government through the Ministry of Transport headed by Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen is targeting to revive the stalled implementation of the Nairobi Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project in the current financial year.
The National Treasury earlier this year allocated some Sh1.17billion to kick off the BRT project.
Kenyan taxpayers will foot Sh1.05 billion while the balance will be injected through foreign financing.
The BRT and the Green Park Terminus seeks to help decongest traffic within the Nairobi central business district and its environs.
For the BRT, Nairobi Metropolitan Area Authority (NAMATA) gazetted 12 mobility corridors, seven of them for core mass rapid transportation linking Limuru, Ngong Town, Kenol, Murang’a, Kiambu, Ruai, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and Konza techno city.
The remaining five comprise rapid transport corridors along Line 2, which have been contracted, and works on them will begin soon.
Line 1 is to run from James Gichuru Road/Waiyaki Way to JKIA — a distance of 20 kilometres, while Line 2, which is 31 kilometres long, will run from Lang’ata Road to Ngong Road as well as Juja Road and Komarock Road to Ruiru. It will have major stops at Dandora, Kariobangi, and near Gikomba Market.
Line 3 will run from Githurai through Thika Road to Moi Avenue in the CBD and terminate at Kenyatta National Hospital. Line 4 will cover 14km from T-Mall to Jogoo Road while Line 5 will cover Outer Ring Road.
Priority corridors are the JKIA to Likoni, James Gichuru-Rironi, and Bomas to Ruiru roads.
The 27 – Kilometer Kasarani-Kenyatta National Hospital line that’s expected to be operational by June is part of the second corridor that runs from Kenol to Rongai.
