Large swathes of the Kenyan capital Nairobi currently feel like one big construction site on account of the ongoing construction of the 27 kilometer Nairobi Expressway that’s being built by two of China’s largest state-owned construction giants, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and Sinohydro.
While a lot of focus has been put on the $668 million expressway project, it’s only one part of a larger plan to ease traffic flow into and around the capital.
A new circuit of ring roads modeled on Beijing’s ring road network consists of four major bypasses, the Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western bypasses encircling the metropolis that aims to divert traffic from the central business district. It is also meant to ease pressure on Uhuru Highway now part of the Nairobi expressway that forms a major artery into downtown Nairobi.
Just this week, CRBC broke ground on 32km Eastern bypass expansion just a month after Kenya secured $18 million to double the size of the road. This will be the last phase of the Nairobi Road masterplan implementation. The road was initially built as a single carriageway road but will now be expanded into a dual carriageway linking the Nairobi expressway to the Thika superhighway further opening up the eastern side of the city.
While the national treasury did not disclose the source of funds, it is suspected that it most likely came from Chinese sources since it was one of the projects showcased to Chinese investors during the Belt and Road forum for international cooperation in Beijing in May 2017.
Work on the Nairobi Expressway together with the four bypasses is expected to be complete by late March 2022 when Macheria says the city will be totally transformed by these new roads. “Traffic jams will end in Nairobi. You are going to see an entirely different city,” he famously promised and giving hope to the millions who are now stuck in a traffic jam.
