Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) has automated the weighbridges along the Mombasa- Malaba highway, also known as the Northern Corridor.
The weighbridges which have benefited from the automation programme include Gilgil, Suswa, Mai Mahiu and other mobile weighbridges.
According to KeNHA, the new high-tech system will enhance efficiency and compliance among motorists ferrying heavy loads along that highway.
The automated system has introduced paperless payments, weighing verification bays, and monitoring systems for buses and other heavy commercial vehicles.
Truck drivers, the authority explained, were ignoring weight rules and ended up destroying different roads in the country.
Speaking during the launch on Thursday, September 8, Jackson Kimuyi of Danka Africa Kenya Limited, the firm contracted by KeNHA to instal the system, noted that the automation would help curb overloading, monitor different road networks and also inform proper designing of other roads.
"The compliance rate with the set load weight standards by trucks by our systems stands at 99 per cent," Kimuyi stated.
It will also reduce graft incidences on different roads, which had affected the road network, which is a logistical hub for other East African countries.
Automating the system is part of the strategy implemented in the East Africa Community (EAC), intending to unify truck loads and fees charged.
In the project's next phase, KeNHA and other road agencies are planning to expand the highway to reduce congestion, especially at the Malaba border point.
Responding to the road's automation, drivers explained that the system would also get rid of officials who were soliciting funds from the motorists.
They added that it would reduce the time commercial vehicles travel from Mombasa to Malaba while delivering different commodities.
