Government funded road projects progressing well in Nairobi

The 4.5km Waiyaki Way–Red Hill dual carriage way funded by the government at a cost of over 3.6 billion shillings is expected to be opened to the public in mid next month.

The roads project undertaken by the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) include improvement of the 1.35 km junction of Waiyaki Way-Red hill Link Road with Red hill road junction, walkways, bridges, culvert, overpasses, underpasses, drainage works, street lightings, landscaping and slope protection works.

Briefing the Nairobi County Development Implementation Coordination Committee (CDICC) during an inspection visit of government funded projects in the country Friday, Eng. Paul Kamande an Assistant Director at KURA said re-carpeting of the road and adjacent roads will ease traffic jams and improve drainage along the roads.

“The project will also include re-carpeting of Grevillea Road, Kyuna Road, Loresho Ridge Road and Kirawa Backside Road, Kathini Road and Kitisuru 2 some of which were not in the initial plan,” said Kamande.

Eng. Kamande said the project commenced on March 14, 2016 and was expected to end on, September 14, 2018, but is still incomplete due to budgetary allocations, compensation issues and court injunctions.

“The carpeting is in full gear but the only challenge making the project lag behind is reimbursement for works done and an outstanding payment of sh. 854, 739,946.87 the contractor requires from the government,” said Eng. Kamande.

The road whose contractor is China Wu Yi. Co. Ltd starts at ABC Place through Kyuna, Spring Valley, Kitsuru, Peponi ending at Red hill where it connects Ruaka, Village Market and Wangige roads.

He informed the CDICC committee led by the Nairobi County Commissioner Flora Mworoa who is the Chair and Mr. Kinoti Gatobu from Presidential Delivery Unit that the project was 92.5 percent complete, and the amount the contractor had received to date was over sh2.1 billion, while value of work done amounts to sh3, 237, 448, 033.43.

During the site visit the committee also told the Athi Water to speed up completion of the Nairobi water distribution project which is also facing challenges of court injunctions, relocation of people who have settled on government land, relocation of power lines and compensation issues.

Mworoa said the government is determined to complete all its projects on the stipulated time to enable Kenyans enjoy the facilities.

“We are determined to unblock all bottlenecks of the national government projects that are delaying the completion of ongoing projects in the county,” she added.

She told the Athi Water government project managers to resolve the issues hindering the progression