Work starts on Sh880m Outer Ring footbridges next week

A section of the newly constructed Outer Ring Road on March 16, 2018 near Airgate Mall. FILE PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NMG 

By BONFACE OTIENO

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Summary

• It appears the engineers, either due to a lack of space or for other unknown reasons did not have pedestrian and commuters in mind.
• The entire 13km stretch is poorly marked and does not even have a single footbridge yet 11 had been planned for in the design.
• Kura denies claims contractors did not designate crossing points on the road

Works on 11 footbridges along Outer Ring Road are set to start next week in a move aimed at reducing pedestrian fatalities on the busy highway.

Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) acting director-general Silas Kinoti said the agency has awarded the Sh880 million contract to Sinohydro Tianjin Engineering Limited.

The footbridges will be erected from Taj Mall on North Airport Road all the way to GSU headquarters in Ruaraka.

“We will start fixing the footbridges next week. They are prefabricated and already at the Mombasa port ready to be transported to Nairobi straight to the site. Each will cost an average of Sh80 million,” said Mr Kinoti.

READ: Outer Ring Road consumes 2,500 tonnes of Savannah cement monthly

Last July

The Sh8 billion Outer Ring Road which serves the Eastlands suburbs of Nairobi that has more than 2.6 million residents, according to Kura, has been operational since last July.

However, it appears the engineers, either due to a lack of space or for other unknown reasons did not have pedestrian and commuters in mind.

For instance, the entire 13km stretch is poorly marked and does not even have a single footbridge yet 11 had been planned for in the design.

This has resulted in unnecessary deaths as pedestrians are involved in accidents, especially when it is dark.

Public crossing
However, the director-general said the road had clearly marked areas for the public crossing.

“We consider public safety as a key component of our service. We have marked clearly areas where the public can cross in the meantime but they ignore,” he said.

The completion of the three-year project, which had initially been scheduled for September 2017, was extended to July 2018 last December.

The extra time was meant to allow the contractor — Sinohydro — to complete the construction of pedestrian footbridges, walkways and cycle tracks, landscaping, road marking, road signage and street lighting, among other pending works.