The Government has injected a total of Sh1.388 billion towards the construction of the Kericho and Ahero interchanges in the Kericho and Kisumu Counties.
The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) Roads Engineer, Eng John Okumu, said Sh578 million have been injected into the construction of the ultra-modern Kericho interchange (B1/C23), which is now at 71% to completion.
Eng Okumu who accompanied a team of the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU), led by the Chair who is also the Kericho County Commissioner (CC), Mr Karungo Kamau, PDU Director, John Karanja, and other PDU members, said that Ahero interchange junction (A1/B1), was at 77 % completion.
The KeNHA Roads Engineer said that the government had injected Sh809 million towards the construction of Ahero interchange in Kisumu County in which Zhongmei Engineering Group limited was the contractor for the two projects.
Eng Okumu said that the anticipated completion date for the two projects has been scheduled for November 3rd, 2021, clarifying that another twelve months will be added as the defect’s notification period in the two projects.
The KeNHA engineer noted that the ongoing rains in Kericho and Covid-19 pandemic restrictions most of which have since been relaxed by the government, had rather slowed the pace of the construction, saying that they were hoping to complete the project as scheduled.
Engineer Okumu said that the construction of the main bridge in Kericho was almost complete and only backfilling on both sides of the bridge was ongoing.
“Construction of breast wall at Kericho was ongoing, foundation and the first lift of the wall are complete, backfilling behind the retaining walls is complete, preparation for the casting of the second lift is still in progress, the bridge works, U-turn walls, Dirt walls, Bridge deck, crash barriers are complete”. Eng Okumu explained.
The Kericho County Commissioner said the current contractor at the Kericho interchange had made great improvements after the first contractor with SBI International was terminated in September 2019.
At the same time, Karungo also hailed the workmanship at the interchange and at the Kimugu Water treatment works for good professionalism.
The PDU Director, Mr John Karanja, said that the progress of construction at the two sites was commendable, adding that he will speed up the pending payments for the contractor to accelerate the pace of construction.
Earlier, the team visited the construction of the multi-million Kimugu Water Sanitation and Treatment plant, where the PDU team was informed that the project was now at 68 percent to completion.
The PDU team was also told that the Kimugu intake point was at 95 percent to complete with only the remaining works being the rehabilitation of the site into its past natural state.
Kimugu Project Engineer, Fabian Masinde, told the PDU team that the procurement of the 600m HDPE pipes for the remainder 4.4 kilometres out of the 7.7-kilometer section from the intake point to the treatment works, was in progress.
He added the process would take another eight weeks to have the pipes procured and installed.
Eng Masinde said that the construction of the Kimugu treatment works was at 72 percent complete.
He said that the construction of the Kimugu treatment works, would be completed by 16th December 2021.
By Dominic Cheres and Gideon Kimutai
