Cement Likely to Be Used in road building

Cement Likely to Be Used in road building
10 November 2004


Cement could soon replace bitumen in building roads, a top Kenyan official said yesterday. A Government-backed study on the advantages of using cement instead of bitumen has been completed and experimental work using cement would be carried out on Mbagathi Road, Nairobi, to gauge the costs.

Kenya Roads Boards executive director Isaiah Mutonyi said the results would help the Government to decide whether to approve the use of cement in all future road building projects. He was speaking at the board’s headquarters in Nairobi, ahead of the Association of Road Maintenance Funding Agencies conference which starts in Nairobi today. Said Mr Mutonyi: "We are all for cement due to its long lifespan of 50 years compared with bitumen’s seven. However, a final decision based on cost implications will be made after discussions." According to him, more than Sh8.7 billion had been set aside to maintain roads countrywide this financial year. Half of the money will be spent on roads managed by the Roads ministry while 43 per cent would be used to repair those run by local authorities and the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Published under Cement News