Sections of Lang'ata and Mombasa Road to be closed Sunday

Ongoing construction of the Nairobi Expressway along Waiyaki Way in Westlands, Nairobi on June 27, 2021.

Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group

The Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) has said that two major roads in the city will be closed on Sunday to enable completion of the Nairobi Expressway.

In a statement, Kenha said the Nairobi-bound carriageway at Nyayo Stadium and Mombasa Road will be closed from Sunday, November 14, 2021.

Kenha Director-General Engineer Kung’u Ndung’u said the section of the road will be closed from 5am to 12 noon to pave way for erection of the Nyayo footbridge.

During the eight-hour road works, Langata–Nairobi-bound traffic will be diverted just after Madaraka Roundabout to Aerodrome Road into Bunyala Roundabout.

This will affect the free flow of traffic from the Nyayo Stadium Roundabout that may even further affect Mombasa Road traffic.

Motorists plying the route have been urged to comply with traffic marshalls to ensure that the closure only causes minimal interruptions.

Since work on the expressway started, Mombasa Road, Uhuru Highway and Waiyaki Way have turned transport in a section of Nairobi into a nightmare, with cars piling up for hours during rush hour.

Overlapping and accidents have become a common sighting despite deployment of additional traffic police officers.

Last week, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Roads James Macharia said that City motorists can breathe a sigh of relief after the government announced it will reopen the old Waiyaki-Uhuru-Highway-Mombasa road affected by construction of the Nairobi Expressway by December 25, 2021.

The Westlands-James Gichuru section which had been closed was opened in October while closed sections between Mlolongo and JKIA have already reopened to ease the current traffic situation.

Haile Selassie–University Way Roundabout is set to be reopened on December 15, 2021, once construction works are done.

The expressway is being built by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) at a cost of Sh62 billion and is expected to be completed in December.

Once completed, Kenyans will pay a toll fee to use the 27-kilometre expressway.