The Kampala- Entebbe Expressway is the first toll road in Uganda designed and being built by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), a reputable Chinese International construction company.
The expressway connects Kampala City to Entebbe International Airport with a spur to Munyonyo. The project is a four lane carriage comprising of 36.9km road connecting the Kampala Northern Bypass at Busega with the airport and 12.6km road connecting the New Kampala-Entebbe expressway through Kajjansi to Munyonyo.
Funded by the Exim Bank of China and the government of Uganda, the project will be fully complete and handed over to Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) by July, 2019.
During a media tour on Saturday June 1, 2019, Patrick Senteza, an engineer at CCCC revealed that the project was supposed to run for five years from 2012 to 2017 but they faced challenges of delayed funds and compensation from government.
“There were some family land wrangles and these also delayed our works and of course families were not agreeing on the right people to receive the compensation and some of these things ended up going to court so the project was basically delayed due to those challenges,” said Eng. Senteza.
“But by July we should have completed the remaining four per cent and the whole road by that time will be handed over to UNRA as our employer of the project.”
Though the road almost complete, Senteza expressed concern over the rampant vandalism and theft of road infrastructure such as metals, signposts, pipes among others.
“Road infrastructure have been stolen by unpatriotic people. They have also vandalized the chain links on the fences and that’s why you find pedestrians, animals are able to access the road yet it is very dangerous since it is a high speed road; a gateway to the airport where travelers are not supposed to be interfered in any way. Here anything like an accident could happen due to the road’s 100km per hour speed.
“However UNRA as the employer has now deployed several mobile police patrols to deal with any wrong doing along the way. There were also incidents of highway theft but due to those patrols, those incidents are no more,” he noted.
Senteza further cautioned road users on bad driving.
“The road users should know that the road is well marked with all the necessary signages so any driver should follow the road signs because they are very clear and anybody following them properly will not have any problem in using the expressway.”
On the other hand, Xiong Pai Liong, the Deputy Project Manager disclosed that the expressway aims at improving the traffic conditions by decongesting the current Kampala-Entebbe Road as well as contributing to urban development.
He also revealed that they built bridges over swamps to preserve the natural vegetation.
“The expressway crosses a length of 13km of swamps, with some water areas measuring 2-3m deep. This used to be a big challenge during construction.”
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
