Cabinet Secretary for Transport James Macharia has unveiled plans to construct two new roads to tackle the traffic menace in the city.
The first road will be called the Western Bypass and will link Gitaru to Ruaka. The 16.5Km expressway shall connect with the Southern Bypass at Gitaru and the Northern Bypass at Ruaka.
A brief from Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) revealed that the road shall have six interchanges and overpasses at Gitaru, Wangige, Kahara, Ndenderu, Rumingi, and Ruaka. The estimated cost of the road is Ksh17.3 billion.
The road will complete a 96.7Km ring of the Northern, Eastern and Southern bypasses.
Lang’ata Road is also set to undergo an overhaul. When completed, motorists will be able to travel from Langata road to Thika Superhighway via Kibera, Waiyaki Way, and Redhill Road.
“Our aim is to ensure people can move fast with minimal disruptions,” Macharia told the Nation.
He added: “The link roads will ensure that those who want to reach their destinations without necessarily passing through the central business district, do so with ease.”
The Transport Ministry has also embarked on a plan to upgrade Ngong, Outer Ring, Lang’ata and Enterprise Roads.
On Ngong Road, the authority plans to complete the dualling of the carriageway and improving junctions. This is in addition to the Sh1.98 billion dualling of Dagoretti Corner-Karen junction, all by July 2019.
The world bank estimates that Kenya losses Ksh50 million in productivity because of traffic snarl up.
