The construction of 11 footbridges on the Outer Ring Road will has finally began with the aim of improving pedestrian safety.
The Kenya Urban Roads Highway (KURA) said Sinohydro Tianjin Engineering Limited, the Chinese firm constructing the footbridges, is expected to install them at Sh880 million. That means that the cost of installing one footbridge is Sh80 million,
“We will start fixing the bridges next week. They are prefabricated and already at the Mombasa port ready to be transported to Nairobi straight to the site,” Silas Kinoti, acting director general KURA stated.
The footbridges will be put up at strategic points along the highway that stretches 13 kilometres long from Taj Mall on North Airport Road to the GSU HQ at Allsops, Ruaraka.
The construction of the Outer Ring Road has been ongoing since September 2014 and it was expected to be complete by September 2017. However, the project has been running behind schedule and is now expected to be finalised in July 2018. Still, according to KURA, the road has been usable since July 2017 because most of the project is almost done.
Over the past few months, the project has elicited negative remarks from residents of Eastlands suburbs who say that the new road has been a disappointment. The missing footbridges, road markings, and bus stops have made the residents conclude that KURA has neglected pedestrian safety. Nevertheless, KURA has refuted these claims.
“We consider public safety as a key component of our service. We have marked clearly areas where the public can cross but they ignore,” Kinoti said.
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