A truck transports timber along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway. PHOTO | JOHN NJOROGE | NMG
The Kenya National Highways Authority will set up 13 new virtual weigh stations on major highways to curb overloading and road damage.
The agency says the additional weigh stations, which take weight measurements as vehicles drive past, will now scale its total number of such stations to 23 under a Sh1.5 billion plan started in 2017 where 10 stations were set up.
KeNHA assistant director for axle load control Michael Ngala said the installations are key in curbing overloading, which has kept the agency’s road maintenance budget stretched.
“The 10 stations we have in some of our highways have so far driven compliance to almost 98 per cent, but we have to do more because our network is expanding. In some areas, the virtual weigh stations work best due to the complexity of the network.
“They are also faster to install and easy to run from a centralised location,” said Mr Ngala.
The new weigh stations are to be set up on major highways including Malaba, Mau Summit, Kajiado, Malili and Eldama Ravine.
The KeNHA also has 11 static weighbridges along the Northern Corridor covering Mombasa and Webuye, including other areas like Juja and Isinya to check on vehicles carrying above the legally allowable eight metric tonnes per axle and the 56 metric tonnes maximum.
The virtual stations send signals for overloaded vehicles to the control room at KeNHA headquarters and flag the violating vehicles whenever they arrive at any of the static weighbridges.
Mobile patrol vehicles are also on standby to track the vehicles that are caught by the cameras in the virtual weigh stations like the one located on the Southern Bypass in Nairobi, Ahero (Kisumu) and Kamulu (Kagundo).
All vehicles above 3.5 tonnes including trucks and buses carrying passengers are supposed to pass through the weighing stations for compliance with the legally allowed loading limits.
The law allows the agency to punish transporters by up to Sh400,000 in fines when overloaded beyond 10 tonnes and compel them to correct the anomaly before proceeding with the journeys.
