KURA Commences Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the Proposed Thika Bypass

Traffic congestion in Thika has been a very huge problem. Since, the completion of Thika Superhighway, Thika has experienced tremendous growth in terms of business and industrial investments. Without the prerequisite infrastructure needed to match this growth, smooth flow of goods and labour in and out of the town has been hampered.

Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) is currently planning to commence the construction of a bypass to ease traffic in Thika. The bypass is expected to divert traffic from Garissa Highway to Thika Superhighway and Nyeri – Nairobi highway to Garissa highway without going through Thika town.

The project is planned to begin in 2018. While presenting the proposed project at a stakeholders’ forum organised by KURA, Eng. David Mutooro, the Engineer in charge of the project pointed out that the bypass has two parts; one part starts at BAT junction joining Thika superhighway at Witeithie, the other part is from the junction, through Oloitiptip road and joins Nyeri – Nairobi highway at Bluepost hotel

Eng. Gathiriki Kamanu, KAM Central Chapter committee member, requested KURA to ensure that they include inputs from all the stakeholders in their design process. “There is a lot of expertise and inputs that KURA can harness by engaging various stakeholders,” he added.