Road agencies to be house in new complex along Old Airport road

Nairobi: The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure will save millions in rent once construction of a new building to house Road Agencies is completed.

Kenya National Highways Authority, its rural and urban counterparts will be domiciled at the new complex on Old Airport road.

Currently, KeNHA and KeRRA are housed at Blue Shield towers and KURA at Iseme, Kamau and Maema Plaza.

Bids for the construction works have already been sanctioned by KeNHA which will supervise the works under its Special Projects docket.

"Yes it's true that we have financing to undertake the construction of the proposed building to house Road agencies", said Engineer Muchilwa, the GM special projects.

The Ministry of Energy has also moved many of its parastatals to KAWI thereby centralizing most of its works.

Meanwhile, the construction of two ultramodern weighbridges on either side of the Northern corridor at Mariakani will be completed by September, Mariakani Weighbridge construction resident Engineer David Mugo has said.

This is after delay in arrival of the Weighing equipment which is still in transit by sea.

“That’s the only delay that we are experiencing since civil works are at 80 percent, what is remaining is the installation of the weighing equipment which we are aiming to begin as soon as they arrive and hopefully ready for commissioning in early September,” said Mugo.

Control point for Nairobi-bound traffic at Mariakani weighbridge.

The existing Mariakani weighing Station is positioned on the right hand side of the Nairobi – Mombasa road. The station caters for both Mombasa bound and Nairobi bound traffic flow which has as a result experienced gridlocks almost every day. The modernisation of the existing weighbridge and construction of a new one for the Mombasa bound traffic will ease operations. 

The Mariakani Weighbridge works are being undertaken by local company Njuca Construction Company at a cost of Sh740 million with the project being funded by the World Bank.

The new weighbridge will feature electromechanical equipment and road furniture for axle load monitoring and control operations including traffic counters, traffic lights, booms, CCTV cameras, weigh-in-motion pads and static weighbridges.

A one-direction weighbridge station layout on both sides of the road controlled by automatic boom arms will ensure that non-compliant trucks cannot exit the weighbridge station until they have complied at which point the system will automatically open the exit control booms to allow the truck to leave the station.

“The trucks which will be compliant will not need to get in the weighbridge as its weight will have already been weighed and will follow the outer lane leading towards the main highway evading any gridlock of trucks at the weighbridge,” Mugo said.

Mugo further said the introduction of High Speed Weigh in Motion previously has seen turnaround time at weighing stations reduced.

“From what has been observed, the High Speed Weighing in Motion (HSWIM) systems has removed human discretion from weighbridge operations. With underground sensors imbedded on the road, HSWIM automatically detects trucks that weigh more than the legal limit, selecting them for static weighing,” the resident engineer said.