The tarmacking of the Tala-Ol Donyo Sabuk road in Machakos County has started with the contractor, China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group Company Limited already on site.
According to the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) engineer in charge of the project Ms. Angela Odera, the 35-kilometer road which links the Tala-Nairobi road with Thika-Garissa road through Kilimambogo will be funded by the Kenya government at a cost of Sh 1.3 billion.
“Already, the contractor has been paid over sh.131 million as the Certified Advance Payment,” she disclosed adding that the project is expected to be completed by October 2022.
Eng. Odera was speaking at Kisukioni area along the road when the Machakos County Development Implementation and Coordination Committee (CDICC) toured the project.
During the tour, the team which was led by the newly posted Machakos County Commissioner Fredrick Ndunga inspected the on-going mobilization process and got a brief from a representative of construction company, Eng. Cai Wei Hua.
Also in the CDICC team was a Deputy Director at the President’s Delivery Unit (PDU) who also doubles up as the committee secretary, Ms. Georgina Njoroge, the Deputy County Commissioner Matungulu, Mohammed Abbas and Kathiani ACC 1 James Masinde among others.
Mr. Hua told the team that though the project was supposed to start in April this year, it was delayed by the onset of Covid-19 pandemic till July. “On July 25, 2020 the contractor entered the site to plan for the main site, station and supervision camp and started the temporary construction of the camp on August 1, 2020,” he said.
He however disclosed that during the peak of the pandemic his company was still maintaining the road. He added that by September 8th, his company had already completed setting up the office and a laboratory for the project.
Hua pointed out that besides creating awareness on the prevention and control of the spread of covid-19, his company has also put in place adequate preventive measures including free provision of masks to the staff.
“During the temporary construction period, the contractor put the pandemic prevention and control work first, and set up special personnel at the main gate to measure the body temperature and disinfect people and vehicles every day. And he also placed buckets and hand sanitizers inside the camp,” he added.
Thanking the company for the steps so far taken Mr. Ndunga assured the management of full government support to ensure that the project is completed in good time.
He reiterated his call to contractors and government supervisors in charge of the projects to raise any challenges facing them in good time so that possible solutions can be found and unnecessary delays avoided.
By Justus Keesi
