Anger Over Delayed Sh820m Thika Road Footbridges

A section of angry commuters on Thursday took to social media sites to express their anger over the much-delayed construction of four new footbridges over the Nairobi-Thika Highway.

The Witeithie, Njomoko, Garden City Mall, and the Kenya School of Monetary Studies footbridges have been under construction since early 2018 for Sh822 million.

Construction of the Witeithie and Njomoko footbridges was awarded to Interways Works Limited on September 4, 2017, and the contractor was expected to complete the project on December 19, 2018, at a cost of Sh430,327,157.

On the other hand, Fourways Construction Limited was on November 8, 2017 contracted to build the Garden City Mall, and Kenya School of Monetary Studies footbridges at a cost of Sh392,480,925 – with an expected completion date of February 2019.

To date, only the Witeithie footbridge has been completed and opened for use to the public, although the contractor is still building additional service roads and bus bays on each side of the road, which will be followed by the removal of existing speed bumps.

The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) Thursday said that Interways Works Limited had already concreted the deck at the Njomoko footbridge and was waiting for the concrete to cure before opening the skywalk to pedestrians by the end of next month.

“The construction of the footbridges at Survey and Garden City is being undertaken by Fourways Construction Limited at a combined cost of Sh392 million. The steel decks will be installed in April and the contractor is expected to deliver the project by the end of May 2020,” KeNHA director general Peter Mundinia said in a statement.

Irate Thika Road users protested the delay on social media asking KeNHA to publish a breakdown of what they termed as ‘exorbitant construction costs’.

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Other commuters lamented the “poor quality” of projects delivered by local contractors.

“The Witeithie (footbridge) exhibits such poor workmanship. One wonders why it took that long to erect it in the first place,” Duke of Gatanga (@dnkariuki) said on Twitter.

KeNHA last Friday announced that a section of Thika Road at Garden City Mall would remain closed to motorists until April 13, 2020, to facilitate the erection of the footbridge.

“The inner lanes of the highway have been closed to allow the contractor to construct the median column for the footbridge at Garden City Mall,” the roads agency said.

Even as Kenyans blame local contractors for delays, it is not lost on many observers that most project deferrals are occasioned by the government’s failure to pay contractors on time.

For example, Interways Works had as of October received only Sh130 million for the two bridges against a contract sum of Sh430 million, according to its CEO James Mugo.

In addition to the cash crisis, the late arrival from China of the steel materials for erecting the footbridges also dealt a major blow to the construction timelines.

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