The access road is designed to divert container-related traffic away from the terminal area and speed the movement of cargo through the port. Works began in March 2025 and are scheduled for completion in March 2027, with progress reported at 49.3 per cent by mid-2026. Of the 1.8-kilometre dual carriageway, about 704 metres will be built as an elevated viaduct, and the total cost quoted for the works is KES 8.344 billion.
Members of a National Assembly committee challenged the port authority on the unit cost of the scheme, with one member describing the spend on a 1.8-kilometre road as unacceptable while young people remained out of work. The committee also questioned the legal basis for committing internally generated revenue without prior engagement with the National Treasury. In its defence, the authority pointed to the full scope of works, including the elevated viaduct section, when explaining the cost.
Mombasa is Kenya’s main seaport and a gateway for transit cargo across the wider region. The review of this single access road illustrates a pattern seen at port cities as trade volumes grow: the last few kilometres of road capacity become the bottleneck, and elevated structures are increasingly chosen where land in the port fringe is scarce and costly to acquire.
