Ugee

Works minister, Mr John Nasasira said they need about $40 million or Shs66.8 billion to erect a new 300-metre-long  cable-stayed bridge -  about 350 meters upstream the decades-old one, which is disintegrating under the weight of increased motorized traffic.

“We are already talking with the Japanese [government] and African Development Bank and hope to raise this money [$40 million] and start constructing the new bridge,” Mr Nasasira said on Wednesday.  He  said Ministry of Finance has consistently failed  to avail money for putting up a new overpass on the Jinja route that provides landlocked Uganda the gateway to international trade through Kenya.

In  1997, Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners consulting engineers then executing remedial  works on Owen Falls dam formally wrote  to  Ministry of Works officials indicating that the developing cracks on the Owen Falls bridge at the time were “very serious,” making it usable for only 5-10  additional years.

 If the heavily eroded and rusty bridge were to crumble as anticipated,  eastern Uganda would become accessible only  via Karuma  and Corner Kamdini (along Gulu highway), Lira town and onwards to Soroti.  This means travellers would have to spend more money and time on the alternative route.

 To  allay  growing  public anxiety, minister Nasasira said UK divers, Associated Consulting engineers and Mott MacDonald’s – all foreign consultants carried separate studies between 2003 and 2006, concluding the Owen Falls dam bridge could  still work with remedial repairs. Following the recommendations, the government did patch-work on the bridge to reinforce splitting pre-cast underneath slabs using asphalt, refurbished the joints and placed humps at the bridge approach to limit drive speed below 30 kilometers per hour.

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