Slow evacuation measures and haphazard disposal of waste water may cause a major delay on an ongoing road construction project in Kiambu town which is scheduled to end in March 2020.
The World Bank funded 2 kilometer project which connects the St Peter’s and Paul’s church to the KK towers has one of its phases temporarily stalled because of the poor environmental conditions from flats located adjacent to the road project.
Unfortunately, according to a KNA spot-check, the third phase which connects Kiambu Primary School to the KK towers is still yet to be touched.
According to the contractor of the project, Murage Muthoga, the reason for this is that the locals have still not evacuated their structures from the road reserve. Moreover, he and his team are finding it difficult dealing with the effluents being discharged on the construction site for a long time now.
“We cannot begin construction when people have their businesses and premises on the road. As we speak, if you happen to go there right now you will find some fence located there still being shifted,” he told KNA yesterday evening at their Kiambu office.
“The other challenge is that there are some people within the market that are disposing effluents along that road in question. Even though they have their own drainage system which cuts across underneath the whole market, you will still find some individuals pouring their grey water on the road,” he added.
Despite all this challenges, Mr. Muthoga however lauded the locals saying they were very cooperative and did not challenge the idea by the Kiambu county government to shift them prior to the launch of the project carried graced by the county governor Ferdinand Waititu in March this year.
“The people have no problem moving. They know that it’s something that is going to help them improve their economy and also open the CBD so that more motorists divert from town through it,” Mr. Muthoga said.
Nevertheless, he did mention that the project is currently late by half a month owing to additional factors brought about by the recent rains.
“There was a time you would hear that the place we were sourcing murram from had rained. The place became very muddy and this grounded our lorries as they were unable to traverse and return on time. Plus, when it rained here at the site, we had to stop since one cannot continue with construction when there is downpour,” he said.
However, Mr. Muthoga pointed out that the project would be completed within the stipulated one year period. The project which also includes the renovation of the Kiambu main stage, is currently at 15% done.
On the road section, the part from the church to Kiambu Primary has already been served with the heavy tasks of earthworks and gravelling and what remains is the clearance of the excess soil, laying of rocks and tarmacking it, he told KNA while exuding confidence of completing the project within schedule.
He indicated that once the heavy tasks and ground works were completed, tarmacking would only take a single day as a simple paver can cover 800 meters to 2 kilometers in that short time
By Lydia Shiloya and Kingsley Wanjohi
