Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen launched the part of the expressway leading into the City Center for trial on Saturday.
The Haile Selassie Exit Plaza is at Greenpark. It has been under construction. It features five toll lanes.
It is expected that it will reduce traffic and speed up vehicles between Capital and Haile Selassie Roundabout. It will offer quick access to Nairobi CBD, Upper Hill, and Ngong Road.
“The value of Expressway was being underutilized because of the exit that was far away from the CBD, far away from Harambee Avenue which is the heart of government offices, including the offices of the President, the Deputy President, Parliament, Judiciary. The seat of government was not being served,” Murkomen said
Besides the Greenpark Exit project, the Roads Ministry says it also plans to add two more lanes at the Museum Hill Exit. This is to increase it from three lanes to five.
“The Nairobi Expressway is a shining monument to what Private-Public Partnerships can do. The Expressway has reduced travel time from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Nairobi from two hours to 20 minutes at no cost to taxpayers,” said the CS
The Roads ministry says the project has also become a major job creator, now offering over 500 permanent jobs.
While noting that PPP-modelled projects will ease the credit burden to the country, Murkomen said Kenya is seeking more of the same projects, for instance, the planned dualling of the Rironi-Mau Summit road and long-term projects such as the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and Athi River-Namanga highways, Kisumu-Isibania and Kiambu Road.
