Initiated by President Mwai Kibaki administration, with the last one completed last year, the ambitious undertaking saw the building of four new ring roads around the city – Southern, Eastern, Western and Northern Bypasses.
Nairobi’s portfolio of bypass roads include the Eastern Bypass, a 39 - kilometre road that starts at City Cabanas along Mombasa Road, linking motorists through Ruai towards Ruiru, passing over Thika Road to Ruaka, where it joins the Northern Bypass, forming a semi-circle through the southeastern and northeastern neighbourhoods of Nairobi.
The Western Bypass connects the Southern Bypass at Gitaru, near the town of Kikuyu, and proceeds in a general northeast direction through Wangige, Kihara, Ndenderu, Rumingi, to end at Ruaka, a total distance of about 16.5km.
The Northern Bypass, a 31-kilometre stretch that starts at Ruaka along Limuru Road, overpasses Banana Road through Runda and Thome estates, before it proceeds to Kahawa West and eventually to Ruiru, through Kamae, where it joins the Eastern bypass.
Lastly, the city is also served by the Southern Bypass, which starts at the junction of the Nairobi–Mombasa Road and Likoni Road and stretches to Gitaru in Kikuyu, Kiambu county. The 28.6-kilometre dual carriageway was completed in 2016 and constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation.
As a complement, the construction of the bypasses was accompanied by the reinstatement and rebuilding of a number of key link roads, that had all but disappeared under the weight of several years of neglect and institutional lethargy.
As envisioned by the planners, the construction of the bypasses negated the need for those travelling long distances to pass through Nairobi’s central business district, as was hitherto the case, thereby decongesting the major arterial roads into and within the city.
Trailers from Mombasa to western Kenya and the rest of the port’s hinterland - Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan were re-directed away from the CBD to the Southern and Eastern Bypasses. The direct corollary of this development is that the damage on city roads previously caused by the heavy cargo haulers has been materially reduced and with it the maintenance budget and frequency of accidents.
A veritable construction boom has been birthed along the bypass corridors, in the process spawning new micro towns. In tandem, old, hitherto sleepy settlements have been reawakened and given a new lease of life. On the Eastern Bypass’ corridor, new urban settlements like Kamakis, the entertainment mecca, have mushroomed.
On the same corridor, older suburbia like Utawala are buzzing with new-found urban buzz and investments. Those who had the foresight to invest in property along the bypass corridors have been reaping handsomely, on the back of improved real estate prices and demand.
The bypasses have been notable job creators, during and post-construction. A number of firms and their employees have been contracted to work in road maintenance – unclogging drainage infrastructure, road markings, clearing of bushes and maintenance of road furniture, among other assignments.
In a country where finished goods arrive on the shelf with at least 40 per cent of their price attributable to inefficiencies in transport logistics, any effort to reduce these inefficiencies is a material fillip to producers and traders in reducing the cost of production and sustaining the cost of doing business at competitive levels. The net effect is improved production, and by extension, our gross domestic product.
The author is a project management professional
