WORK ON SH180BN NAIROBI-MAU HIGHWAY TO START IN JANUARY
The much-awaited construction of a toll highway from Nairobi to Mau Summit is expected to begin in January 2020, the government has disclosed.
Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Secretary James Macharia said the government will prioritise this project, as well as the JKIA-Westlands Expressway, to gauge their successes before embarking on other similar projects countrywide.
The two projects, which will be completed at a combined cost of Sh242 billion, will be undertaken on a Public Private Partnership deal in which a company builds a highway, operates it for some years to recoup its investment before handing over the road to the State.
The Nairobi-Mau Summit Road will be built by Rift Valley Connect – a consortium made up of Vinci Highways SAS, Meridian Infrastructure Africa Fund, and Vinci Concessions SAS.
On the other hand, the JKIA-Westlands Expressway will be undertaken by China Road and Bridge Corporation.
The scheduled start of the Nairobi-Mau Summit highway comes months after four foreign firms moved to contest a decision by KeNHA to award the contract to Rift Valley Connect, an appeal that was dismissed.
Rift Valley Connect will be expected to design, finance, construct, operate, maintain, and transfer the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit road, whose cost has now been put at Sh180 billion up from the previous budget of Sh150 billion.
The project will involve expansion of the 180-kilometre road into a four-lane dual carriageway from Rironi in Limuru to Mau Summit in Nakuru County.
The scope of work, which also involves rehabilitation of the Mai Mahiu-Naivasha Road, will also include the erection of toll stations on the highway under a Public Private Partnership.
“[The contractor] will be expected to build, maintain, manage and operate the highway and recover his money from motorists in the form of user fees,” the Kenya National Highway Authority (KenHa) director general Peter Mundinia said in an earlier interview.
The contractor will operate and maintain the Southern Bypass, as well as maintain the Gitaru to Rironi segment, whose upgrade is ongoing under the James Gichuru-Rironi Road Project.
In 2017, KenHa disclosed that the government was planning to erect toll stations on four other major roads in the country, including Thika Road, Nairobi-Mombasa highway, Nairobi Southern Bypass, and a second Nyali bridge in Mombasa.https://www.constructionkenya.com/5250/nairobi-mau-summit-road-project/
