Nairobi-Mombasa expressway project in Kenya stalled

October 30, 2019: The Kenyan government has suspended the construction of the US $3 billion Nairobi-Mombasa expressway project for two years. The suspension is due to the country’s debt concerns, noted transport cabinet secretary James Macharia in a report.

“We have decided to suspend the project for at least two years to allow the country’s debt levels to drop, while also prioritising other key projects,” he added reports Construction Review Online.

The proposed project involves the construction of a 473 kilometres expressway that will begin at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) along the existing Nairobi-Mombasa highway and will snake through seven counties to end at the Changamwe roundabout in Mombasa.

The project according to design maps of the high-speed road will bypass the capital city to branch off just past Konza and terminate onto the Nakuru highway in Kikuyu. 

The road development would have been Kenya’s first expressway and the largest single-contract road project. It was projected to generate nearly twice the funds spent to build it over a period of 25 years.

Bechtel, a US-based private construction conglomerate, won the contract in a government-to-government deal that formed part of Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta’s discussions with US president Donald Trump during his US visit last year.

The expressway project was also projected to create 500 jobs and involving local businesses in supplying up to 100,000 tonnes of cement and 40,000 tonnes of steel that would be used on the road.