U.S-based Bechtel Corp. has won a contract for the construction of Kenya's first expressway, which is designed to ease transportation of goods between the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and the landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Construction of the four-lane, 473-kilometer expressway with 19 interchanges will commence in 2018. The first phase, between Mombasa Road and Kyumvi, or the so-called Machakos Turnoff, is likely to be commissioned in October 2019, according to an earlier brief by the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha), a state-owned road agency that develops, manages, rehabilitates and maintains Kenya's international and national trunk roads.