Page 52 - Engineering in Kenya Mag

KONZA TECHNOPOLIS:
An ecosystem of top-notch engineering technology
WHAT would it take to build a futuristic smart city hosting 250,000 residents, all living, studying and working within one ecosystem, in close proximity of 5,000 acres?
When magnificent, modern smart cities like Beijing, Tokyo, Manhattan or Los Angeles were conceptualised, no one, not even the presiding engineers and architects, pictured they would become lasting edifices,
blueprints for future smart cities.
Kenya is in the process of achieving its first engineering
Konza Technopolis Development
marvel of this kind. Designed and engineered as a smart city, the Konza Technopolis project located in Konza at the intersection of Machakos, Kajiado and Makueni counties promises more than just a built-up area
of urban metropolis.
Engineering works for Phase I of the project
are in high gear, happening on 400 acres of land that will host an estimated 30,000 residents upon completion. Slightly more
than half of this number is catered for in the blueprint to work within Phase I alone, once the smart city urban
environment is built up. Konza has widely and correctly been touted as both a future smart city and an upcoming ICT Silicon Savanna. The rapidly developing Technopolis anchors on three major components that have often gotten overlooked: engineering, life sciences in the form of a research and development post- graduate teaching and learning university, IT- enabled services as well as a highly potential future backbone for commerce and the light manufacturing
industry in Kenya.
Engineering trailblazer
Apart from its magnificent boulevards atop a 9km utility tunnel, in terms of infrastructural engineering, the Konza Technopolis will also be traversed by 40 kilometres of large-sized multi-
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Engineering in Kenya Magazine Issue 002
Authority CEO Engineer John Tanui (Background) The Konza City main office block. PHOTOS: Gor Ogutu
.