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The government of Kenya has commenced talks to construct a 482-kilometer expressway that will connect Nairobi and Mombasa cities.
This follows a pre-feasibility study carried out by the Korean Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation Africa (KIND) in collaboration with the Kenya National Highways Authority (KenHA) and the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works.
Citizen TV reported that the taskforce presented a pre-feasibility study report on the findings of the construction of Mombasa Expressway-Public Private Partnerships (PPP) project on Wednesday.
The study focused on demand projections, traffic projections, and affordability projections for the project that is expected to create more than 21,000 jobs and an additional 2,573 jobs per year during its operations and maintenance.
The road will start from Machakos Turn-Off to Mariakani in Mombasa and will see the existing highway become a four-lane dual carriageway linking the country’s two largest cities. It will feature interchanges and bypasses in the key towns along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.
It will be the second major road project under the Public Private Partnership following the successful construction of the 27-kilometer Nairobi Expressway.
American engineering company Bechtel had been awarded a Sh300 billion contract to build the expressway in 2018 but it turned down Kenya’s proposal to recoup its investment via toll fees.
Instead, Bechtel wanted the Kenya government to secure funds for the construction of the highway, according to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).
PBO said a study by Inter-America Development Bank showed a road is likely to be a viable candidate for construction through the toll model if it has a flow exceeding 5,000 vehicles per day unless the government offers a sizeable subsidy to the contractor.
“The contractor has indicated that the country will get better value for money if the road is constructed under an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) model rather than a toll model,” PBO said.
Bechtel noted that under the alternative public-private partnership (PPP) model, the project would cost five times more at $15 billion (Sh1.5 trillion) and take longer to complete.
Comments
You are correct
The feasibility study was completed in 1999.
Country should think twice about dealing with American firms. They are greedy, slow and their workmanship is wanting. I have lived and worked in the US for twenty years and I have observed them building local highways. Jobs that the Chinese would finish in six months take six years and when finally done they are faulty and have to be ripped up and redone in sections. One such highway is the i85 in South Carolina, it has been under reconstruction since 2012 and some sections of it have even grown weeds. They start Jobs that they can't finish, stay away from American companies.
While I appreciate your remarks, in no way would I compare American and Chinese workmanship.. No way!!! One doesn't need to have a certificate in Civil engineering to see, the faults in Chinese-built infrastructure- Thika Highway? American companies have lots of oversights and thus superior outcomes, not sure if them checks and balances would be applicable if they are building in a country that is lawless as Kenya.
I am talking about what I experienced over nineteen years of interstate trucking. American highways are substandard, bumpy and poorly finished. I have also frequently driven on the Chinese built roads back home and they are definitely better finished. The American work ethic is to blame for the poor quality in all the products made in USA.
Good advise to the kenHa & Kura..a very worthy observation by diaspora for mother land.
Kenyans wake up the waiting for Wester countries to plug your infrastructure gaps has been shown will never work. Just go with the Koreans if they give good enough terms for the PPP. Otherwise that money will go to another agreeable country.
Yes,Far East countries like S.Korea,Japan,Taiwan are very eager to help African countries in uplifting their infrastructure & utility services......
We should not just depend on China.
I quite agree, if we rely on American company, the road will never be done, the goal posts will keep on changing, and so are the other western powers.
Its seems the idea is to have Africa to be underdeveloped, in order to exploit it for longer.
On the highway, as a country, with SGR, the question still linger, DO WE NEED IT, at our cost? My opinion is NO, let it be on a PPP.
Cool
Don’t believe everything you read in this story!
They left the part where one company refused to offer brides to the Kenyans pushing this project, while the other was willing to!
In the end, when bribes are involved, the losers are all of us!
This project will cost 4-5 times the “actual cost”, take longer to complete, and we’ll be on the hook for both the high interest loans to build it, plus the toll fees too!
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Way to go. Bechtel wants it money upfront. So, let them go and build elsewhere. Hopefully it can be done within the next 5 years. We are the pride of africa.