Improvement of Commuter Rail Stations - Mwiki

About

Construction of new modern Rail Station for the Metre gauge in the Mwiki area including but not limited to Rail line re-design, computerised systems (turnstiles & automatic ticketing), a 240 metre long 5 metre wide platform with steel structure roof sheds, 800 metre rectangular drains, street lighting, septic tank, 50m3 underground water tank 50m3 capacity, a 12metre high steel elevated water tank and 720 metre tubular fence. Other works included construction of a completely new 500 metre bypass railway line as well as rehabilitating the existing line. This is one of the Kenya Railways stations in Nairobi CBD served by the Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) flagged off by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Challenges

Few people had worked on rail lines therefore a steep learning curve was needed in order to get to grips with the very technical Kenya Railways rules and regulations. The area was being used by the local community to discharge foul water, and dump spoil material, this meant that the whole area needed to be excavated and cart to spoil whilst a solution for the discharge needed to be found. Deep excavations next to the rail tracks needed to be done for the platform these had to be planked and strutted to order to prevent collapse but this was made more difficult by the fact that the trains could not be impeded. Added emphasis on health and safety had to be taken as working near the rail line meant both the equipment and labour needed to be even more careful that usual.