Transportation
Deal With US Investment Firm Advances $3.6B Kenyan Road Project
The highway project was revived during a state visit by Kenya's President William Ruto to the U.S. in May.
Photo Courtesy Kenya Public Service Commission
U.S.-based infrastructure investment manager Everstrong Capital has signed a project development agreement with Kenya for the planned $3.6-billion Usahihi Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway project that would link the country’s capital of Nairobi to the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa. The deal with the Kenya National Highways Authority enables the firm to organize finance, construction, tolling, operation and maintenance of the 440-km expressway under a 30-year concession.
The initial agreement was formally signed in May, during a state visit by Kenya President William Ruto to Washington D.C. The project is set to take 36 to 48 months, although there is no confirmation yet on a construction start date.
The new expressway would add two to four lanes along the alignment of the existing two-lane Nairobi–Mombasa Road, also known as A109 Road, which is part of the Northern Corridor that connects Mombasa to the land-locked countries of Burundi, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan. These countries currently rely on road transport for freight exports and imports. The new expressway would complement the 592-km Standard Gauge Railway that runs parallel to the narrow-gauge Kenya-Uganda Railway built in 1901.
The signed deal with Charlottesville, Va.-based Everstrong “marks a significant step forward in the construction of a new Nairobi-Mombasa highway,” said Meg Whitman, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya. “This stretch of road is vital for Kenya’s continued economic growth and a new highway will be safer for all drivers, passengers, and pedestrians who depend on this important corridor for work, pleasure, and living.”
The entire high-speed expressway is to be constructed to a bituminous standard established in an earlier design by the highway agency. It will be 7-m to 14-m wide, excluding shoulders and central median, with most shoulders to be 1.5 m wide. Designed to handle 100 kph (62 mph) traffic outside of urban areas, the expressway is expected to reduce travel time between Nairobi and Mombasa from 10 hours to four hours.
The government intends to establish at least three special economic zones along the expressway route that integrates business with the railway and with local communities.
Revival of a Stalled Project
The new agreement constitutes the latest attempt to build the project. Bechtel was selected in 2017 as preferred contractor for the high-speed expressway, which was designed to have 19 interchanges and toll stations, and would have been Africa's longest tolled highway. Construction was slated to commence in 2018.
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At the time, the project was “structured to achieve early completion, under a fast-track delivery model, with concurrent design and construction, and with the first section, from Mombasa Road – Kyumvi to ICT Konza, targeted to open in 2019.” Bechtel said. Partial financing was expected from U.S. and UK agencies such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and UK Export Finance.
However, Bechtel left the project in 2021, after the Kenyan government insisted on developing the expressway through a P3 model that would have the contractor recoup project costs through tolls. At the time, Bechtel stated that Kenya would “get better value for money if the road is construction under an [engineering, procurement and construction] model rather than a toll model.”
