Expressway contractor erects metal grills to protect poll attendants
The contractor managing the Nairobi Expressway has erected metallic grills to protect the payment booths.
14:52 Nairobi Expressway now builds this metallic protection around the booths. Two accidents nearly cost the ticket attendants their lives. pic.twitter.com/W2d51bkShg via @umoja_news
— Ma3Route (@Ma3Route) July 18, 2022
The move comes weeks after two grisly road accidents occurred on the road that left three attendants seriously injured.
The second of the two accidents involved three personal cars which rammed into the booths leaving one passenger dead and damages to properties estimated to be worth millions of shillings.
“The motorist crashed into the Toll Plaza and ran over other vehicles that were being cleared to exit. Consequently, the vehicle knocked one toll booth and injured one toll attendant besides the other motorists.”
Barely two weeks after, about 22 Kenyans including a toll agent sustained severe injuries after a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) rammed into a Toyota Prado.
The Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia reacted by banning matatus from using the expressway while adding that speed cameras would be installed on the new road with the speed limit set at 110kph.
Macharia also announced rumble strips would be installed to warn drivers to slow down as they approach the various toll gates.
The Nairobi expressway was commissioned in 2019 and was open to the public in May.
The 27-kilometre four- lane carriageway has 11 interchanges at Mlolongo, Standard Gauge Railway, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Eastern Bypass, Southern Bypass, Capital Centre, Haile Selassie Avenue, Museum Hill, Westlands, and James Gichuru Road.