Kenya’s new road connection for port

Kenya is on track to build a new highway connection from the port of Lamu to Isiolo. The project is for a 530km highway and will cost US$620 million, with the route running through Garissa. The final route has yet to be identified but it seems likely that the highway will skirt a number of the country’s protected areas that are subject to tight environmental requirements and on which Kenya relies for much of its tourist trade. The project will be carried out by the Lamu Road Consortium (LRC), which comprise
December 1, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

Kenya is on track to build a new highway connection from the port of Lamu to Isiolo. The project is for a 530km highway and will cost US$620 million, with the route running through Garissa. The final route has yet to be identified but it seems likely that the highway will skirt a number of the country’s protected areas that are subject to tight environmental requirements and on which Kenya relies for much of its tourist trade. The project will be carried out by the Lamu Road Consortium (LRC), which comprises South African firm Group Five and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). The project will be carried out as a PPP under a 25-year build-operate-transfer package. Construction is expected to take 48 months to complete, with work commencing in mid-2018. The project will deliver better port access for East African countries and will improve transport connections to Kenya’s northern port of Lamu. The new link will form part of the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor Project. At Isiolo, the road will link with the planned Isiolo-Lokichar Road, close to Kenya’s border with Uganda. The route will also end at Lokichar in Turkana where it will join the Eldoret-Juba highway. At Isiolo it will connect to the new northbound road to Moyale, which lies on the border with Ethiopia.

Finance & Funding

Related Content

  • Realigning Kenyan bypass to avoid quagmire and ease congestion
    March 21, 2012
    Japanese consultants are planning to realign a Kenyan bypass, as Shem Oirere reports. Japanese consultants are resolving an engineering quagmire involving a 17.5km bypass in Kenya's Coast region. The new design realigning the bypass is underway by Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) consultants. The road is an alternative link from the hinterland to the south coast and to the proposed Dongo Kundu Port. The 23m-wide bypass would also serve to reduce traffic congestion across the Likoni Channel t
    Read More
  • Kenya highway projects starting
    March 11, 2019
    Construction work is starting on two important road projects in Kenya. These are for the Dongo Kundu Southern Bypass and for the Mau Highway. The Mau highway project is worth US$2 billion and forms part of the route that links Kenya’s key port at Mombasa through its capital Nairobi to the border with neighbouring Uganda. The 180km Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau section of the A104 route will feature two lanes in either direction. The deal is being handled under a package that includes design, financing, maintenance a
    Read More
  • Funding issues – delays to Kenya’s major highway project?
    April 17, 2018
    Concerns over financing are delaying progress on Kenya’s massive highway connection project. The new highway between the capital Nairobi and the country’s premier port of Mombasa is expected to cost in the region of US$3.5 billion. Construction is being managed by the US contractor Bechtel, which is sourcing suitable funding from private firms and has considerable experience of building highways in developing nations. But the sheer scale of this project, one of the country’s largest since its independence,
    Read More
  • Chinese firm wins highways expansion project to decongest Nairobi
    January 5, 2017
    A Chinese contractor is carrying out a major road project intended to cut congestion in Kenyan capital Nairobi – Shem Oirere writes Chinese contractor China Wu Yi has won a US$163 million contract for the reconstruction and expansion of a 25km highway leading out of Kenya’s capital Nairobi with financing from the World Bank. The contract was awarded by the country’s National Highways Authority (KeNHA), a state-owned road agency responsible for the management, development, rehabilitation and maintenance of i
    Read More

Highlighted Content