NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 5 – Nairobi County is planning to acquire two road patching machines at a cost of Sh100 million with the aim of reducing the cost and time taken to fix potholes.
The County is in talks with AEA Ltd (Formerly Avery East Africa) for its Velocity Road Patching technology to repair its road infrastructure.
The Sh50 million machinery, seals damaged potholes in three to five minutes, a departure from pothole repair in Kenya which currently involves manual digging using a road-rollers taking hours.
The County Executive Committee member in charge of Roads, Transport and Public Works, Mohammed Ahmed Dagane says the equipment fixes the technology will also cause minimum disruption to traffic.
“This is a relatively new technology in Kenya and it will reduce our road maintenance budget by roughly 50 percent,” said Abdullahi during a demo of the patching technology.
The County will also contract AEA which is already deploying the technology to patch up potholes in other parts of the country including the Moi South Lake Road in Naivasha.
The company’s Project Manager, Michael Murage, says the technology has proven to be more durable in the long-run, offering a 1-year warranty for patched up roads.
“The technology is a one-stop solution which will take half the time it takes to repair potholes. We have demonstrated this to several counties including Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu and Transzoia,” says Murage.
Nicholus Kithinji, AEA Ltd Managing Director said the technology has been tried and tested in developed economies and is fully compliant with the National Highway Sector Scheme 13 and Code of Practise for Innovative Patching Systems.
“AEA is targeting county governments with the new innovative equipment so that the new administrations can save money in repeat jobs as well as speed up small scale road construction works,” reinforced Kithinji.
The machines are being supplied by a UK company, Velocity, in partnership with AEA Ltd which has been using them to patch potholes in the European country. The purchase price includes cost of personnel training.
