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Nairobi Western Bypass | U/C

251K views 856 replies 125 participants last post by  AlbertJP 
#1 ·
CRBC have signed an agreement for construction of the Nairobi Western Bypass

An extract from a story of Uhuru's SGR inspection tour

At Saturday’s function, the Ministry of Transport – through the Kenya Highway Authorities – signed an agreement with the China Road and Bridge Corporation for the construction of Nairobi Western Bypass.

The Western bypass road, which will link Ruaka to Waiyaki Way, will help decongest the city and facilitate easy movement of those traveling outside Nairobi.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Business Daily said:
The government has announced the start of construction works for the Nairobi Western bypass aimed at reducing traffic congestion in the capital.

The Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) said Thursday it has signed an agreement with the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to carry out feasibility studies and designs for the development of the bypass as a high capacity expressway, paving way for its construction.

“The Nairobi Western Bypass project will be implemented as an Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contract (EPC). The total EPC cost estimate is Sh17.3 billion and will be funded through a concessionary loan from the Government of China,” said State roads agency in a statement.

The proposed Nairobi Western Bypass has been identified as a link necessary for the completion of a system of ring roads around Nairobi City to disperse traffic away from the Nairobi Central Business District.
Construction of key Sh17bn bypass to decongest city set to begin

Cost per lane km still on an upward spiral
That price tag, its north of 250million per lane kilometre, f**k! Compared to the roads that were tendered for in the recent past, these are the costs:
Outering Road - 8.5 billion for 13 km - 163million per lane km
-Missing link langata to Ngong Road -3.84km - Contract sum 2.09 billion - 136million per lane km
-Ngong Road - 2.6km - Contract sum 1.3billion - 125million per lane km
-Waiyaki way to Redhill Road - 5km - Contract sum 3.012 billion - 150million per lane km
 
#6 ·
The Signing


The Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) has signed a contract with China Roads and Bridges Corporation to carry out feasibility studies and designs for the construction of the Nairobi Western Bypass.

The construction is expected to cost Sh17.3 billion and will be funded through a concessionary loan from the Government of China.

The Kenya National Highway Authority Corporate Affairs Manager Charles Njogu says the proposed four lanes highway measuring 16.5 kilometres with a design speed of 100 kilometres per hour will connect the southern bypass at Gitaru and northern by bypass at Ruaka.

Njogu says the Bypass has been identified as a link necessary for the completion of a system of ring roads around Nairobi city aimed at easing traffic in the Central Business District.

“The Nairobi Western Bypass project will be implemented as an Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contract (EPC) and will include facilities like walkways on each side at Wangige, Kihara Ndenderu and Ruaka Townships, underpasses for pedestrian traffic at market centres, a bus terminus at Wangige among others,” Njogu stated in a statement.

Other facilities include noise barriers on interchange slip roads at Ruaka to minimize noise disturbance on resettlements and a central steel barrier for pedestrian control and safety along the main bypass alignment.

The new Bypass follows the completion of Northern and Eastern Bypass while the construction of the Nairobi Southern Bypass is nearing completion.

It is also expected to enhance economic growth along the areas it will pass through
 
#7 ·
This is really expensive, Thika road had more lanes(almost double) and more than three times the distance yet i cost only double this figure. In my opinion, the money used to dual this road was better used in making the eastern bypass dual; at least that is crying for expansion asap
 
#12 ·
That was exact same thought when I saw the cost .... I have used that road till gitaru from Ruaka and the money would give much more impact if used on Eastern Bypass ... That's where the bottleneck is... At times esp when I am coming from Karen using the southern bypass I actually prefer this road as is when I know waiyaki way has high traffic .. It's good for this road to be upgraded but the cost is way too high ....
 
#8 ·
The overpasses cost more to construct than a normal road.The more the pillars/columns used to elevate a road the more expensive it is.ORR has a lot of those and a 2-level separation if I remember seeing something like that which is the way to go.Thika Road should have had that at Globe Cinema roundabout and at Pangani.The Western Bypass is needed to complete the ring around Nairobi
 
#15 ·
Lets be happy at least this will be under construction soon and hope N& Eastern bypasses will be expanded soon . We all seem to have given up on Jkia- james gichuru expansion. Eastern and Northern bypass are an absolute example of how our successive govts have failed to plan and waste the limited tax payers funds. These two roads were just recently completed. A well thought out infrastructure project should last at least 15yrs without any major changes. But as usual(and like greenfield) we look at things in the short term and always seem to be playing catch up. All the bypasses should have been planned as 3*3 highways. Appalling to see that round a bouts will still be kept on Ngong road.

As for the costs, we all know everything is over inflated in kenya. 1B per kilometer of road is absurdity! This price can be significantly brought down to around 200M a km. The best thing this govt can do is equip NYS hire qualified engineers (local & expatriates) and start building highways(at cost price) like crazy! We are going no where if we have to spend 1B per km.
 
#16 ·
While i desperately want the Eastern bypass to be dualled i do not agree that the govt failed to plan on that. All indications were that it would only be a road diversion. There wasn't even a absolute need for such a road like with the southern bypass. A plots buying spree changed all that. For those that used the road in the first three years, you will agree with me that other factors came into play. I tend to think those are the peculiar things Michael Joseph talked about. If anyone were to look at the traffic projections of Thika road and what it currently experiences you will realize that that we need to factor the peculiarities of Kenyans on road designs
 
#20 ·
I also think we have been played, even if they will do everything (design, build etc). No tendering means we can't get best value. And Western Bypass is the least of priority roads for Nairobi (have used it, local traffic most of the time), so I am not sure it will actually have a significant dent on traffic the way Southern & Eastern bypass have helped. Still, when this ring around Nairobi of dual carriageway roads is complete, we will all appreciate.

A lot of Eastern Bypass traffic should be on ORR, so I think traffic will ease significantly (plus on Mombasa Road) once ORR is complete. I would have liked to see GoK put more emphasis on plans to eliminate junctions/roundabouts through over/under passes and other creative designs. Hapa ndio shida iko...
 
#23 ·
That cost is excessive. Couldnt they have used a fraction of those funds and move the balance to Uhuru Highway project. I think Uhuru highway is a more urgent project than this.

Movement between town, msa road upper hill and westlands is unbearable these days with gridlocks on Uhuru highway the whole day. It gets extremely worse during the rush hours.
 
#24 ·
It looks expensive considering the southern bypass was 30Km and initial cost projected around 17B. However, maybe the EPC contract may have pushed up the price considering the contractor bears all the risk to deliver the project as per the design , agreed performance and timelines set and failure to which he contractor bears the liabilities. In other words if something happened during the project to delay the project, that cost will not be the government liability but the contractor. I suspect the cost of southern bypass may have surpassed the 17B by much because of all the delays around the national park and some other areas. Maybe this could be the reasoning for an EPC based on experience of the southern bypass.
 
#27 · (Edited)
Some insight from a facebook poste.
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If you read the above statement well it indicates as follows:
The Ksh17.3 entails cost of feasibility studies, Designs, Construction of a four lane highway measuring 16.5Km, Construction of service roads on both sides totalling 17.37Km and Construction of four (4) interchanges and Bypasses. Kindly note this is an EPC project, ( Engineering Procurement Concept) that means the agreement entails all costs including resettlement and compensation. Let's get the facts right.
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I think to put it in perspective we need to think of the final cost of the 2km road from Bomas to KWS; it must have been over 3 billion. Factoring that land compensation was only at the interchange, its easy to draw parallels. I do not think there is enough road reserve to construct a dual road here never minding the fact that there will be four interchanges and service roads all through
 
#30 ·
Sounds like it will be better than southern bypass with two service roads ..essentially building 8 lanes. If this amount includes compensation then 17B sounds reasonable. Cartels have taken over these land deals/compensation. We need someone radical that is going to start throwing these guys in jail.
 
#34 ·
^^ Sound Proofing?? I would assume it involves the installation of sound dampening walls along the periphery of the highway. This is an effective way of muffling or reducing the effect of noise pollution on surrounding residential communities.
 
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#36 ·
For those who were saying that Western Bypass or Outer Ring Road were most expensive per km they are actually not.It is the KWS-Bomas and Dongo Kundu Bypass.The underpasses on KWS-Bomas section seems were expensive.Southern Bypass and Western Bypass will be same length and cost.Thika Rd is was cheaper per km and the exchange rate was much lower then and it also has more service lanes and slip roads length than its total stretch length.Southern Bypass is the best road in the country IMO and if Western Bypass turns out the same it will be great
 
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