Nairobi Northern Bypass Highway

Nairobi Northern Bypass Highway, is a road in Kenya, the largest economy in the East African Community. It connects the neighborhood of Ruaka to the neighborhood of Ruiru, both in Nairobi County.[1]

Nairobi Northern Bypass Highway
Route information
Length13 mi (21 km)
HistoryDesignated in 2009
Completion in 2014
Major junctions
Southwest endRuaka
 Runda
Thindigua
Mirema
Kahawa
Northeast endRound About Eastern Bypass
Highway system
Roads in Kenya

Location

This road starts in the neighborhood called Ruaka, approximately 16 kilometres (10 mi), north-west of the central business district of Nairobi, the capital and largest city of Kenya.[2] From there, the road travels in a general easterly direction through Runda. It briefly crosses into Kiambu County, passes underneath Kiambu Road, re-enters Nairobi County and continues to a neighborhood called Marurui. At Marurui, the road takes a north-easterly direction, crosses Kamiti Road, then passes through Kahawa and re-enters Kiambu Couty, to end at the Nairobi Eastern Bypass Highway in Ruiru.[3] The highway measures approximately 21 kilometres (13 mi), from end to end. [4]

Overview

This road is one of the four bypass highways built to direct motorized traffic away from the central business district of the city of Nairobi, to alleviate the perennial traffic jams on the city streets. The bypass highways include (a) Nairobi Western Bypass Highway (b) Nairobi Eastern Bypass Highway (c) Nairobi Southern Bypass Highway and (d) Nairobi Northern Bypass Highway. It is one of these four bypass roads that form a 96.7 kilometres (60 mi) ring-road around the city.[5]

Construction

The highway was constructed between 2009,[6] and 2014,[7] as a two-lane, single carriageway road. The work was performed by China Road and Bridge Corporation. Work on this road together with the 32 kilometres (20 mi) Nairobi Eastern Bypass Highway, was budgeted at KSh8.5 billion (US$85 million). The funding for both these roads was as illustrated in the table below.[1]

Initial Construction Costs for Nairobi Northern and Eastern Bypass Highways
RankName of Development PartnerFunding in US$PercentageNotes
1Exim Bank of China
72.25
85.0Loan
2Government of Kenya
12.75
15.0Equity
Total
85.0
100.0Total length 33 miles (53 km)

Expansion

In 2018, the Kenyan government contracted Sinohydro Limited to convert the Nairobi Northern Bypass Highway to a four-lane dual carriageway with culverts, drainage channels and walkways on both sides. It is estimated that dualling the Northern and Eastern Bypass Highways will cost anywhere from KSh30 billion to KSh40 billion (US$300 million to US$400 million).[8] The process is on-going, as of March 2019.[9]

See also

References
  1. Muhoro, Maina (18 August 2010). "Northern Bypass Nairobi". Nairobi: Constructionkenya.com. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  2. Globefeed.com (6 March 2019). "Distance between Central Nairobi, Kenya and Ruaka, Kenya". Globefeed.com. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  3. Google (6 March 2019). "Location of Nairobi Northern Bypass Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  4. Globefeed.com (6 March 2019). "Distance between Equity Bank Ruaka, Kenya and Ruiru Progressive Primary School, C63, Ruiru, Kenya". Globefeed.com. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  5. Patrick Lang'at (17 September 2018). "New road project to decongest Nairobi City". Daily Nation. Nairobi. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  6. Daily Nation News (8 February 2009). "Bypass construction starts without approval from environmental body". Daily Nation. Nairobi. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  7. Obwocha, Beatrice (13 December 2015). "New bypasses jerk up road crashes". Daily Nation. Nairobi. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  8. Peter Mwangi (31 January 2018). "Chinese firm wins Nairobi's Northern Bypass dualling tender". Nairobi: Constructionkenya.com. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  9. Constant Munda (4 November 2018). "NLC starts process to buy land for city road dualling". Business Daily Africa. Nairobi. Retrieved 6 March 2019.

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