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eThekwini gears up for the Durban Eye Project
Nairobi-Mombaa Expressway
The government is at the early stages of talks to have a four-lane, 482 KM expressway that will connect Nairobi and Mombasa cities.
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A pre-feasibility study has already been undertaken by the Korean Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation Africa (KIND) in association with the Kenya National Highways Authority (KenHA) and the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works.
Recently, the taskforce presented a Pre-feasibility study report on the findings of the construction of Mombasa Expressway-Public Private Partnerships (PPP) project.
The feasibility studies focused on demand projections, traffic projections, and affordability projections for the project.
The expressway which will start from Machakos Turn-Off to Mariakani will see the current two-lane highway become a four-lane carriageway to connect Nairobi and Mombasa cities.
Additionally, the envisioned expressway will include interchanges and bypasses in the key towns along the Mombasa Road. jobs and an additional 2,573 jobs per year during its operations and maintenance.
This will be the second Public Private Partnership project after the successful construction of the 27km stretch Nairobi Expressway.
The Kenyan government replaced a US contractor; Bechtel Engineering, with the Korean firm after a fallout in a financing model for the proposed Nairobi-Mombasa expressway.
The state had proposed a toll fee business model where the American firm would source funding and then recoup its cost through toll fees, but the company declined the offer. insisting on a contract model where the government would pay for the construction of the Ksh318.25 billion Mombasa-Nairobi expressway.
The firm argued that the public-private partnership model that would see it recoup the cost of contracting the 473-kilometre highway through toll fees would inflate the cost of the project to ksh1.6 trillion since it would involve borrowing and interest payments which it did not want to get involved in.
