Chinese firm wins tender for Magadi road expansion

Chinese contractor Synohydro has won the tender to dual the Bomas-Ongata Rongai-Kona Baridi stretch in a move aimed at reducing traffic congestion within the city.

The 22.65 kilometre stretch is set to be built through a performance-based maintenance contract that gives the selected contractor up to 10 years for maintenance and repair.

Synohydro Construction Ltd has estimated it will take around one year to dual the road.

The road starting at the junction of Lang’ata road near Bomas and runs towards south-west direction through Ongata-Rongai and terminates at Kona Baridi.

“The dualling of Bomas –Kona Baridi stretch is set to start around November. The contractor is Synohydro Construction Ltd.

“It will be undertaken through the annuity roads financing program,” Transport and Infrastructure cabinet secretary James Macharia told the Business Daily Wednesday.

Mr Macharia added that the contractor will also expand the Bomas-Dagoretti market road which is located in Nairobi.

The 13.9 kilometre road starts at the junction of Langata road near Bomas of Kenya, heading in a westerly direction through the Karen shopping and commercial centre (roundabout) and ends at Dagoretti Market T-Junction.

The scope of work on this road will entail upgrading to dual carriageway with the exception of a section of some 3-Km between Karen road and the Hub shopping centre, which have already been dualled.

The dual-lane section will be terminated just before the Southern bypass ramps in order to prevent major works, increased land-take and disruption to the Southern bypass since the existing underpass does not allow for the dual-lane width.

Several roads in the outskirts of Nairobi and the counties are set to be constructed using an annuity model, where banks provide the cash in loans, with financing planned to hit Sh170 billion in two years.

Among the roads to be tarmacked or improved are the Uplands-Githunguri-Ngewa-Ruiru, 68-kilometre Modogashe-Samatur road in Wajir County, 75-kilometre Rhamu to Mandera road, says the Budget Policy Statement provided to Parliament for 2018-19.

The projects include the construction and rehabilitation of the 28-kilometre roads to augment select urban roads in six counties in Central Kenya (Nyeri, Embu, Kirinyaga, Murang’a, Tharaka-Nithi, Lakipia) and 32-kilometre roads in counties of Vihiga, Kakamega, Bungoma and Busia in western Kenya.

Some 67km will be paved to augment the existing road network from Illasit to Taveta through Njukini, a Treasury update says.

The Treasury has signed and done a financial close for the Kajiado-Imaroro and Ngong-Kiserian-Isinya roads, with the distance totalling 90.55 kilometres.

KCB Bank is financing Intex Raf for the construction of the road.