Infrastructure

Maai Mahiu-Suswa Road Set for Sh13bn Upgrade

Road to be designed with a provision for dual carriageway.

Updated on

July 29, 2020

The road will be expanded to accommodate larger vehicles. PHOTO | FILE.

The government is set to redesign and reconstruct a 41-km road from Maai Mahiu to Suswa in a bid to end recurrent disruption and rerouting of traffic during the rainy season.

According to the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), the road will be reconstructed with a provision for dual carriageways in the future as traffic volumes increase.

The Maai Mahiu-Suswa road, which serves the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, has been closed many times during heavy rains after sections of the motorway are washed away by floods.

The motorway – which is part of the Maai Mahiu-Narok road – has also deteriorated in the past few years due to faulting in the geologically unstable Rift Valley area.

The frequent closures of the road have caused huge losses for businesses while disrupting the movement of tourists to the Maasai Mara and forcing motorists to use longer routes.

“The redesign and reconstruction project is intended to ensure unhindered traffic movements along the road,” KeNHA says in submissions to Nema.

The road starts at the Maai Mahiu junction on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. It passes through Maai Mahiu town and traverses community land to the east of Mount Longonot before entering Suswa town.

From Suswa, the road passes through Olasiti market before terminating at the second SGR Bridge at the bottom of the Nairegia Enkare escarpment.

KeNHA has opted to redesign and reconstruct the road at the current traverse after it was found that construction of an alternative road corridor in the area would not solve the problem since the new motorway would likely face similar problems as the current one.

The upgrade of the Maai Mahiu-Suswa road will lead to expansion of the road to accommodate larger vehicles and increased traffic volumes. It will also boost economic viability of the SGR stations as well as the Naivasha ICD and Industrial Park.

The government has acquired land to facilitate the construction of an interchange that will provide smooth and safe traffic flow near the ICD and Industrial park.

“The proposed construction design will use technologies that ensure the road does not collapse at faultiness, reduces the possibility of overtopping and siltation as it will use bridges and concrete slabs to span subsurface unstable areas and faultiness,” KeNHA said.

According to the preliminary engineering report, the project will cost Sh13 billion if the government decides to reinforce the soils using geosynthetic material or Sh11 billion if it chooses not to use the material.