US infrastructure investment manager Everstrong Capital recently signed a project development agreement with the Kenyan government for the US$3.6 billion Usahihi Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway project linking the country’s capital, Nairobi, with the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa.
Everstrong Capital, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, signed the agreement with the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) for the rights to organize the financing, construction, tolling, operation and maintenance of the 440 km highway under a 30-year concession.
The initial agreement was formally signed in May, during a state visit by Kenyan President William Ruto to Washington DC. The project is expected to last 36 to 48 months, although there is no confirmation yet on the construction start date.
The new expressway involves adding two to four lanes along the alignment of the existing two-lane Nairobi–Mombasa road, also known as the A109 road, which is also part of the Northern Corridor connecting the port of Mombasa with the landlocked countries of Burundi, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan. These countries currently depend on road transport for their export and import of goods. The new express line is also expected to complement the 592 km standard gauge railway, which runs parallel to the Kenya-Uganda narrow gauge railway, built in 1901.
The US ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, said the signing of the agreement “marks an important step in the construction of a new Nairobi-Mombasa road”.
“This stretch of road is vital to Kenya’s continued economic growth and a new road will be safer for all drivers, passengers and pedestrians who rely on this important corridor for work, pleasure and life,” he said.
The entire high-speed highway must be constructed to a bituminous standard established in a previous KeNHA design. It will be between 7 and 14m wide, excluding shoulders and central median, with most shoulders 1.5m wide.
Designed to handle 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) traffic outside urban areas, the expressway is expected to reduce travel time between Nairobi and Mombasa from 10 hours to four hours.
KeNHA intends to have at least three special economic zones along the highway route that integrate business with the SGR and local communities.
Reactivation of a stopped project
The new deal is just the latest attempt to move the project forward. In 2017, Bechtel was selected as the preferred contractor for the high-speed expressway designed to have 19 interchanges and toll stations along the route, the first expressway of its kind in Kenya that would have been Hwy. largest toll road in Africa. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2018.
At the time, Bechtel said the project was “structured to achieve early completion, under a rapid delivery model, with concurrent design and construction, and with the first section, from Mombasa Road – Kyumvi to ICT Konza, which will open in 2019. .” Partial funding was expected from US and UK agencies such as the US Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and UK Export Finance.
However, Bechtel abandoned the project in 2021 after the Kenyan government insisted on developing the highway using a P3 model and that the contractor recoup project costs through tolls. At the time, Bechtel said Kenya would “get better value for money if the road is built under an EPC model rather than a toll model”.
