Engineers have completed preliminary designs for the Sh80 billion Likoni bridge that will link Mombasa island to the south coast, setting the stage for its eventual construction.
The project consultants, Katahira & Engineers International from Japan and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), last week presented the final preliminary design to the stakeholders in Mombasa.
Officials from both the national government, which is the main stakeholder through the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), and Mombasa County approved the design.
APPROVAL
The plan documents are however yet to be officially sent to KeNHA for approval which will give a go-ahead for the beginning of meetings on detailed design.
“Presentation of the feasibility study is now complete after taking three years. The official approval of the first design will then allow us to start planning for meetings of the detailed design of the bridge,” Mr Horward M’Mayi, KeNHA engineer in charge of the project, said.
Representing the county government was Transport executive Taufiq Balala. Other stakeholders were officials from the Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Defence Forces and National Museums of Kenya.
Mombasa County’s department of infrastructure and public works, on its official Facebook account, said.
“Attendants gave great contributions and in the end gave approval for the project to proceed to the detailed design stage.”
TRANSPORT
The detailed design will take the government and its consultant two years before it is completed, according to Mr M’Mayi. The plans indicate that the bridge will start on Lumumba Road near Jela Baridi Prison in Majengo.
It will go across the railway station and Moi Avenue along Archbishop Makarios Road, over the Likoni Channel at Mwenza Creek and then join the southern bypass at Ziwani through the Mtongwe road.
The cable-supported bridge will be 69 metres at the highest water level and 1.4km long.
Once completed, the Mombasa Gate Bridge is expected to operate concurrently with the ferries at the busy Likoni channel, on which some 300,000 people and 6,000 vehicles cross daily.
The bridge will ease movement of goods and people between the island, south coast and Tanzania.
It is also expected to reduce conflicts between docking ships and ferries. The bridge is one of the ways through which the government plans to end congestion at the Likoni channel.