Nairobi - Thika Road Expansion A Superhighway to Posterity Due to the successful completion of the road, commuters are enjoying faster, reliable, comfortable and more affordable journeys By Emmanuel Onsomu The 50km, KES 35 billion (US$418million) Nairobi -Thika Superhighway, officially opened in November 2012 by former President Kibaki, will contribute greatly into transforming Kenya into a strong economic hub for the region and beyond. The transformation of the road into a super highway is one of Kenya’s first large-scale transportation infrastructure projects.
from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egyptone of the highest priorities in the NEPAD shortterm action plan. The highway had earlier been constructed to bitumen standard in the early 1970's and re-sealed with an overlay in the early 1990's.After rigorous feasibility and capacity studies, it was esteemed to be operating beyond capacity, carrying more than 60,000 vehicles per day.
The Government of Kenya through Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) embarked on a grand project to have the Nairobi to Thika road expanded from a four lane highway to an eight lane superhighway. The road, which is part of the classified international trunk road A2, originates in downtown Nairobi and extends to Moyale at the Ethiopian border. It is also an important link on the Great North Trans African highway -that traverses
Due to this stress on the road surface, its condition deteriorated rapidly, thus requiring rehabilitation and a redesign to factor the increased traffic along the route. The initial planning and diagnostic studies of the inadequacies of the road were done within the context of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area Urban Transport Plan (NMUPT). The study was commissioned by the Government in 2004 with funding from Japan International Cooperation
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June 2013