Nairobi News

The Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) has announced temporary closure of a section of Mombasa Road for nine days.

Kenha in a public notice on August 17, 2023, said the closure will affect motorists using the Kyang’ombe Slip Road and advised them to use an alternative route to their destinations.

Kenha said the area will be undergoing maintenance works between Thursday to Friday next week and will happen at the City Cabanas stage Nairobi bound.

“This is to allow for the construction of additional two lanes comprising of a deceleration lane into the Kyang’ombe Slip Road and a tailback storage lane for traffic destined for the Eastern Bypass,” Kenha said.

“Traffic headed to ICD is advised to proceed straight along Mombasa Road and exit at Laboratory and Allied into ICD road,” Kenha’s director general Kung’u Ndungu said in a statement.

He added that normal traffic shall be restored upon completion of the construction works.

In March 2023, Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the rehabilitation of sections of Mombasa Road that were damaged during the construction of the Nairobi Expressway will take one year to be completed.

He noted that motorists had complained for a long time that the lower-deck roads are in bad shape.

The CS, said many Kenyans have serious concerns about the status and the quality of the road.

Construction of the 27.4-kilometre Nairobi Expressway chipped away some lanes of the lower roads, leaving narrower paths that have occasioned high-traffic gridlock.

The scope of refurbishing the old road involves fixing the drainage system, erecting a bus rapid transport system on the road and fixing pedestrian walkways. The design also provides for erecting a modern lighting system and re-carpeting the old road.

Moja Expressway will operate the toll road for 27 years before handing it over to Kenha.

Motorists pay between Sh120 and Sh1,800 to use the 27.1km road depending on the size of their vehicles and the distance they will cover.