Authority finalising roads' expansion plan

Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) is currently carrying out a design and feasibility study for construction of a dual carriageway from Nakuru, Nyahururu and Nyeri to Marua.

KeNHA Project Engineer Kefa Seda said designing of the project, which is being funded by the World Bank, is at its preliminary stage and is aimed at improving the flow of traffic across the country.

Speaking during a stakeholder's forum at Green Hills Hotel in Nyeri, Mr Seda said the authority is seeking to expand other roads into dual carriage that will have several by-pass.

"We are looking for a possible engineering solution for expansion of the entire stretch from Nakuru, Nyahururu, and Nyeri up to Marua known as B-5 to ease congestion.

He said B-5 is sandwiched between two major highways namely, A-2 which links Nairobi to Nakuru and A-104 which cuts across from Nairobi, Thika, and Moyale up to the Kenya-Ethiopia border.

Seda said it is due to this reason that the authority is considering expanding the B-5 to ease traffic flow and cope with the increasing number of traffic from the other two highways.

"This design and feasibility study is aimed at doing away with all bottlenecks that may arise about the projects before we come up with a detailed roadmap," Seda said.

Traffic jam

He said already Intercontinental Consultancy and Technocrat Private Limited from from India in partnership with Runji and Consultancy Engineers and Planners Limited are carrying out the designing work.

Team leader, Sandip Bhattacharjee, said upgrading of the dual carriage is necessary to take care of increasing traffic and induce a smooth flow.

"By August we will be done with this study in order to come up with the total cost for the project," Bhattacharjee added.

And yesterday residents and motorists called on the Government to move with speed and decongest the town which has in the recent past been experiencing heavy traffic jam in the morning and evening hours.