Likoni Floating Bridge Officially Opens to the Public

The Likoni floating bridge constructed at a cost of Sh1.9 billion officially opened to the public on January 1. This is in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive on commissioning the project in December.

The footbridge connecting Mainland south to Mombasa Island is the first pedestrian footbridge built at the Likoni crossing channel by the State Department of Infrastructure.  

The project is expected to ease pressure at the Likoni ferries and end human congestion at the crossing channels.  Likoni county residents for the first time had the relief of cutting down the time between Likoni to Mombasa. Unlike using the ferries, the bridge is an easier way to connect to Mombasa town centre.

Regional Commissioner John Elungata and the police chief Gabriel Musau led other security officials to oversee movement as commuters plied the bridge which is only seven minutes to cross by foot.

Elungata urged members of the public to make use of the footbridge in order to decongest the overwhelmed Likoni ferries.  

Residents expressed excitement at the completion of the project and lauded the timely initiative by Government.

There are however concerns that the fate of the highly publicised Likoni cable car project initially meant to start in 2017 after receiving Cabinet approval may now be stalled. It was to be undertaken by Trapos Limited but encountered a lot of false starts.

With the commissioning of the Likoni bridge, the fate of the cable cars now hangs in the balance.

Transport Principal Secretary Solomon Kitungu explained that “The cable car is not necessarily to be substituted by the floating bridge. However, project sponsors will have to respond accordingly. If they find out that there is no market then they might not go on with it,”  

Last year, a Senate committee questioned the capacity of Trapos Limited to undertake the project and directed the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) to cite similar projects the company had successfully completed.  

The cable system was designed for a total of 28 cabins and a maximum of 5,500 passengers per hour across the channel in three minutes and 40 seconds.

Elungata who was equally in the company of Kenya Ports Authority officials and Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) Engineers said that a standard operating procedure will be released on Monday next week because the bridge lies on a sea route used by marine vessels leaving and docking at the port of Mombasa.

The administrator said the engineers and other staffers are on training and will soon be deployed to take over the appropriate running of the bridge.