Special truck lanes to curb Gilgil weighbridge chaos

A truck at the Gilgil Weighbridge on the Nakuru-Nairobi highway. FILE PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH  

By ALLAN ODHIAMBO

In Summary

• Road agency says move will ease traffic congestion on the Naivasha-Gilgil section caused by trucks queuing to access the weighing machine.

The Naivasha- Gilgil section of the Northern Corridor is set to get special concrete truck lanes as part of an emergency project seeking to ease congestion on the road that connects Kenya to East Africa’s landlocked markets.

The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNha) said the project will involve construction of 3.5 metre-wide concrete lanes for use by heavy trucks proceeding for checks at the weighbridge station.

“The project starts two kilometres from Gilgil weighbridge (Nairobi bound) and ends 1.5 km after the weighbridge on the A104 road,” KeNha said.

The area around Gilgil is presently prone to massive traffic gridlocks mainly caused by trucks queuing to access the weighbridge. The gridlocks often stretch for tens of kilometres on either side of the weighbridge station and last for many hours, leaving traders and commuters highly inconvenienced.

“We are now tendering, work starts within a month’s time,” Peter Mundinia, KeNha director-general told Shipping& Logistics.

The stop-gap measure will come as a relief to thousands of road users who have in recent years experienced massive gridlocks around the weighbridge.

“Issues have been raised on the design of the weighbridge because it directly sits on the highway and traffic has to be interrupted whenever trucks slow down to queue at the facility. It is envisaged that future redesign and expansion work on the Nakuru-Nairobi road will factor in the current inconveniences,” an engineer at KeNha said.

Concerns have also been raised over the design of the weighbridge at Mlolongo where truckers from the Mombasa side of the highway have to turn right to access it leading to massive traffic snarl ups.

The weighbridge managers, SGS Kenya proposed the construction of a second facility to help address the present design challenges at Mlolongo.

“Trucks from Mombasa have to turn right to enter the facility which inconveniences other road users as it slows traffic but a second weighbridge would solve this problem,” SGS managing director Albert Stockell said last year.

Besides the stop-gap measure to ease congestion around Gilgil, the government plans to expand the entire 157km Nairobi-Nakuru highway into a dual carriage status under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model to improve the flow of traffic to western Kenya and other areas such as the Great Lakes region.

The conversion of the Nairobi-Nakuru highway would supplement efficient flow of traffic between the Nairobi-Mombasa road that is also marked for expansion.

The Treasury last year picked a consortium led by consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to offer transaction advisory for expansion of the Mombasa-Nairobi highway (A109) into a dual carriageway in yet another move aimed at easing traffic to Mombasa port.

The 485km Nairobi-Mombasa highway is deemed critical for trade in the region because of its link to the Mombasa port which is the main gateway to East Africa and also serves markets in South Sudan and the Great Lakes region, handling key goods including fuel, consumer goods and other imports as well as exports of tea and coffee from the region.