Nairobi–Mombasa Expressway


The Nairobi–Mombasa Expressway, also known as the Mombasa–Nairobi Expressway or the Nairobi–Mombasa Highway, is a proposed four-lane toll highway in Kenya. The highway will link Nairobi, the capital and largest city of Kenya to Mombasa, the largest seaport of the country. The new highway is expected to cut travel times between the two cities from the current 6 to 10 hours to approximately four hours.

Location

The road starts at Gitaru along the Nairobi–Nakuru Highway, approximately, northeast of Nairobi City centre. It continues in a general southeasterly direction, through Ngong, Ongata Rongai, Kisaju and Isinya to rejoin the existing Nairobi–Mombasa Road, just north of Konza. The highway passes through nine Kenya counties to end in the city of Mombasa at the Changamwe Roundabout, a total distance of about. The coordinates of this road at Kibwezi are: 02°25'04.0"S, 37°57'39.0"E.

Overview

The planned expressway is a dual-carriage motorway with initially four lanes, expandable to six lanes in the future. The road will be capable of supporting sustained traffic speeds of up to per hour and will have controlled access.
The expressway is intended to serve as "a central part of the national and regional transport system, helping promote trade and development in Kenya" and the regional neighbors of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and South Sudan.

History

In February 2015, the Kenyan government hired PriceWaterhouseCoopers to conduct a feasibility study on the commercial and technical viability of the Nairobi–Mombasa Expressway. The PwC report indicated the highway was viable if the highway operator collected a toll that would be used to retire the private capital used to develop the expressway. Starting about that time as well, the government of Kenya, through the Kenya National Highways Authority, began detailed talks with Bechtel International on a public-private partnership to design, fund, construct and operate the highway.

Construction costs

The cost of constructing this expressway is budgeted at US$2.1 billion. Funding is expected from the Export–Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, also from the USA.

Timetable

In August 2017, KeNHA signed a binding agreement with Betchel International, an American civil engineering and construction company to design, construct, and operate the proposed expressway. The expressway will be developed in 10 sections and is designed to have 19 interchanges. Construction is expected to start in July 2018. Completion of the first section is expected in October 2019, with the entire expressway expected to open in 2024.
In April 2019, the Business Daily newspaper reported that construction is expected to start in the second half of calendar year 2019.