Nile bridge cracking attracts criticism

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has come out to clear the air about allegations and criticisms over the cracking of the newly launched cable stayed bridge in Jinja, Eastern Uganda.

The bridge that’s being mooted as a huge tourism attraction, UNRA said in a Jan.28 is being finished and that the contractor is in the process of applying permanent asphalt on the bridge deck.  “The wearing course seen and referred to as ‘bumpy’ or cracked by a section of the public is a non- structural attachment and therefore not a defect on the bridge”, they said.

Officially launched by President Museveni in October, the 525 meter-long bridge is the second cable-stayed bridge in East Africa crossing Victoria Nile and linking the Northern Corridor that connects Kenya with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Before the launch, UNRA had conducted a road test on it in which 26 trucks loaded with murram and each weighing 25 tonnes crossed the bridge concurrently for more than 30 minutes to determine the bearing capacity. However, no cracks were detected an indication that the bridge was ready for use, but critics say the first launch could have been only political.

Constructed at a cost of about sh41.1b, the Bridge is expected to have a life span of 120 years.