By Joe Ombuor

The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is right on course. This is attested to by the intensity of the work going on along the 472km corridor between Mombasa and Nairobi. Heavy machinery characterise the scenes along the route where major works, including building bridges, elevating the gradient with earth and concrete to desired levels and drilling rocky surfaces, are ongoing. Concrete patterns that can be easily confused for decorations are done to prevent erosion on the raised embankments. Blasts from explosives are common occurrences to build a uniform platform devoid of curves and slopes that are not ideal for speeds of up 120km per hour for passenger trains and 80km per hour for the freight ones, the experts explained. Civil works, said to be 60 per cent complete, include the replacement of unsuitable black cotton soil in the path of the railway with red soil, which is preferred for its compactness. The soil is fortified with murram, as we found in the stretch between Sultan Hamud and Emali, where earth movers are being used to remove black cotton soil as lorries bring in the red soil and murram. A foreman on the ground, Mr Ibrahim Malike, explained that clay soil stretches while the red one is compact. See also: Uhuru’s meeting with other heads of state paying off Low pay There are approximately 32,000 casual workers who earn between Sh57 and Sh96 per hour for a minimum of eight hours. It is estimated the Nairobi-Mombasa stretch will have cost Sh327 billion on completion by June next year. Chinese overseers along the entire stretch number about 2,500. Everywhere along the line, local workers complained of exploitation by their Chinese counterparts, whom they claimed enjoyed better remuneration. Apart from low pay, the workers say they are denied a hardship allowance and that their meagre salaries are taxed, leaving them with but a pittance. Although the actual railway line is in place at the Syokimau rail head on the outskirts of Nairobi, where a major terminal station has been planned, Transport Permanent Secretary Irungu Nyakeri says only 50km of the rail that will stretch 609km inclusive of parallel tracks has been laid.
From Syokimau, the metal rails measuring 1.5m wide run briefly towards Athi River where work on a major bridge stretching 2.55km is ongoing. Some 28 supporting beams are in place to hold the bridge that is among the longest in Africa, according to supervising engineer Christian Odhiambo. The bridge that will cover part of Nairobi National Park is designed to allow free movement of wildlife. Longer sections of the 50km of rail already in place are in Emali, Simba, Makindu, Mtito Andei, Manyani and Tsavo River. The completed sections are an attraction to behold, more so where locomotives bearing the acronym CRBC (China Roads and Bridge Corporation) can be seen shunting with wagons carrying construction materials crawling along. Motorists on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway stop their vehicles to admire this precursor of a new beginning in the previously neglected railway transport. The new bridge over Tsavo River where an unknown number of Indian and African workers were devoured by man-eating lions in 1898 is spectacular at a height of seven metres. 98 bridges It is 56 metres long. A total of 98 similar bridges covering 29km are under construction across valleys, roads and rivers. Nine are wild wildlife crossing corridors. See also: Uhuru’s meeting with other heads of state paying off Similarities between the SGR, whose construction works are currently underway and the Lunatic Express launched at the port of Mombasa in 1896, are scarce but significant. While the former is wider (1.5m) and features concrete sleepers, the latter is 1m wide on steel sleepers. Unlike the metre-gauge line set on steel sleepers that had to be imported because they could not be manufactured locally, SGR lines are rested on pre-stressed concrete sleepers secured with precast T-beams, which are manufactured in factories in Emali and Mtito Andei architectural design stations in Makueni County using trained local labour under the supervision of Chinese experts. The old railway, which was built by the British, was truly a lunatic and wild venture at a time the bulk of workers, 32,000 in all, had to be shipped in from India for lack of dependable indigenous labour. Of these, 2,498 lost their lives to diseases, hostile locals and lions by the time the line touched the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu.

Source: Standard Media

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