Sanyatti
Member
NAIROBI's GRAND ROAD PROJECT - THE 62 BILLION EXPRESSWAY PROJECT
The expressway is the first major road project to be undertaken under public-private partnership model. The contractor building the JKIA-Westlands Expressway expects to cut construction time by six months and deliver the project by June 2022. This is good news for users of the busy Mombasa Road, which is infamous for the traffic gridlocks witnessed for years. Since construction works on the expressway started, this has worsened. The Sh60 billion road project runs from Mlolongo and terminates at James Gichuru Road in Westlands. It started in October 2019. The China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is constructing the 27.1-kilometre road under a public-private partnership (PPP) framework. The firm has in addition to designing the road, also sourced for financing to undertake construction works. The contractor will then operate the expressway for 27 years and recoup its investment through the collection of road tolls. The government has allowed China Road and Bridge Construction (CRBC) to review the set base toll rates, forecast to generate Sh302.5 billion revenues, which will offer the Chinese firm an annual profit of Sh3.9 billion. Each driver on the Nairobi Expressway will be required to pay a fee of between Sh100 and Sh1,550, depending on the size of the car and distance travelled, but the charges will fluctuate to cushion the Chinese operator from exchange rate losses. This infrastructure financing model for road construction that both avoids adding to already high debt levels in Kenya while reducing risk for creditors mirrors changes taking place in Mozambique and The Nairobi-Mau Summit is also expected to be constructed under the PPP model. KeNHA estimates that completion of the road will reduce the time motorists take, from two hours during rush hour to between 10 and 15 minutes.
The expressway is the first major road project to be undertaken under public-private partnership model. The contractor building the JKIA-Westlands Expressway expects to cut construction time by six months and deliver the project by June 2022. This is good news for users of the busy Mombasa Road, which is infamous for the traffic gridlocks witnessed for years. Since construction works on the expressway started, this has worsened. The Sh60 billion road project runs from Mlolongo and terminates at James Gichuru Road in Westlands. It started in October 2019. The China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is constructing the 27.1-kilometre road under a public-private partnership (PPP) framework. The firm has in addition to designing the road, also sourced for financing to undertake construction works. The contractor will then operate the expressway for 27 years and recoup its investment through the collection of road tolls. The government has allowed China Road and Bridge Construction (CRBC) to review the set base toll rates, forecast to generate Sh302.5 billion revenues, which will offer the Chinese firm an annual profit of Sh3.9 billion. Each driver on the Nairobi Expressway will be required to pay a fee of between Sh100 and Sh1,550, depending on the size of the car and distance travelled, but the charges will fluctuate to cushion the Chinese operator from exchange rate losses. This infrastructure financing model for road construction that both avoids adding to already high debt levels in Kenya while reducing risk for creditors mirrors changes taking place in Mozambique and The Nairobi-Mau Summit is also expected to be constructed under the PPP model. KeNHA estimates that completion of the road will reduce the time motorists take, from two hours during rush hour to between 10 and 15 minutes.