The trip to and from Mombasa, from almost anywhere, is a constant stream of two-way traffic, much of it very heavy trucks travelling at very low speeds.
How hard, and how expensive, would it be to turn the entire TransAfrica Highway No 8 from Mombasa to Malaba into a dual carriageway? Several readers
Short answer: More difficult but less expensive than not doing so. It is already happening; it will happen. The question is “when?”
Longer answer: We can be sure that State planners have been asking this question for decades, and will have made exhaustive calculations on the costs and merits. The decision to build the SGR railway first/instead must have been based on comparative analysis.
The condition of the mostly two-way road itself is already better than it has ever been. Some sections have already been dualled (including the peerless Expressway) and more must surely follow.
But there has also been a massive (tenfold?) increase in the quantity of traffic using it. The trip to and from Mombasa, from almost anywhere, is a constant stream of two-way traffic, much of it very heavy trucks travelling at very low speeds.The time it takes to do the journey has roughly doubled. Fuel consumption, stress and danger are all high.
I understand the SGR was expected to reduce the road traffic load by 1,000 trucks per day. It does not seem to have done that. The truck traffic does not appear to have abated at all.
The more conspicuous move has been made by private individuals, who have migrated to the train (and the airport) in significant numbers. Because driving that route is such a penance.
If the road was a dual carriageway, the savings in time and cost for business and individuals would be enormous, with immediate and ultimately exponential gains to all parts of the national economy.
As the cost-benefit value over time is a no-brainer, we must presume that
State resources (or “cash flow”, to use a simplified term) are committed to a long waiting list of other essentials… a not unreasonable verdict when, for all its shortcomings, TransAfrica Highway No 8 has had a share and is still functional.
The complexity of the “policy pie” is way beyond my pay grade, but I can understand the distinction – and the compromise - between what “is” essential and what “would be” ideal.
