Section of Lang'ata Road to be closed for six days

A section of Lang'ata Road will be closed for six days starting today, the Kenya National Highways Authority has said.

In a statement on its Twitter account, Kenha said part of the road will be closed at the T-Mall Roundabout.

The agency's director-general Kungu Ndung'u said the planned closure would pave way for the erection of the T-Mall Flyover.

The road will be closed from Monday, January 10, to Saturday, January 15. Works will be scheduled to take place at night from 9pm to 5am.

"The Lang'ata-T-Mall bound traffic will be diverted at the junction with Wilson Airport into Lang'ata bound lane adjacent to the median," said the statement.

The authority advised motorists to follow the proposed traffic management plan and cooperate with the police and traffic marshals on site.

Additionally, motorists have been urged to exercise caution and road courtesy while driving.

Unsatisfactory road designs

The trouble with Nairobi’s traffic is majorly caused by the poor design of some of the roads leading into and out of the central business district.

Some of the unsatisfactory designs are such that there are fewer roads easing traffic into the Eastern and Northern sides of the city than to the Southern and Western sides.

Motorists exiting town to go towards Embakasi or onwards through Mlolongo must end up on Mombasa Road, somehow; and those exiting town and through Kasarani, Ruiru, Juja or Thika town end up on Thika Super Highway.

It is, however, much easier to exit the city to places like Kilimani, Lavington, Kileleshwa, and into Ngong Road.

But even for those hurrying out of town and into a whole network of roads, delays are often expected. There are so many other bottlenecks on our roads that even the Sh60 billion Nairobi Expressway might struggle to resolve, namely broken lights, blatant disregard of rules, corruption by some of the people who should be keeping order, among many others.

In an article published on The Standard on May 21 last year, Britannica reported, “Trains on the principal lines of the Métropolitain (Métro) subway system first opened in 1900, are fast and frequent. Over many years, lines have been extended into the suburbs, and in 1998 a new, fully automatic line was opened to serve central areas of the city.”

The city’s transport system also features extensive bus service and tram lines. It is also served by a system of expressways, which quickens the transportation of people and goods going through, but not stopping in the city.

[Additional reporting by Peter Theuri]