Bidding for construction of six-lane Mombasa-Nairobi highway to begin

By Staff writer

The government plans to start inviting bids to build a six highway lane linking Mombasa and Nairobi.

Transport said the aim is to ease traffic flow and shorten time taken for cargo to reach Nairobi.

“The six highway lane and the ongoing construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) will link the capital city Nairobi with Mombasa city and the Port of Mombasa, Currently, the two cities are linked by a two lane highway leading to frequent traffic snarl ups caused by cargo trucks, especially at weigh bridges like Mlolongo,” said James Macharia, Transport CS.

The move is part of the government’s initiative to expand road network across the country to complement the upgrading of railway line to SGR, expansion of Mombasa and Lamu Ports.

“The port cannot be seen in isolation – it should be seen as an integral part of infrastructure development,” he said.

A new 10.5 km dual carriageway is presently being built from Port Reitz to the Second Container Terminal and is expected to be completed by May, 2018 at a cost of Sh11 billion – that is aimed at improving access to the Second Container Terminal at the Port of Mombasa to avoid congestion at Changamwe area.

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Managing Director Catherine Wairi said that the construction of the second phases of the new Container Terminal would commence in June next year following the recent approval by the National Assembly of a loan facility of Sh27.3 billion from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

“The new Container Terminal which is operational, is capable of handling fourth generation vessels of 6000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) capacity and we look forward to the positive impact this will have on your businesses and regional economies,” she said, adding that upon its completion, the new terminal will have the capacity to berth four ships of up to 100,000 tons at once against the current maximum of one vessel of not more than 80,000 tons at a time.

Ship turnaround time at the Port has steadily improved from 3.7 days in 2015 to 3.0 days in 2016 while container dwell time had also improved from 5.3 days to 4.3 days in the same period.