40-years-old collapse bridge: Fear grips community
Collapse bridge: Fear grips Ebonyi
community
terseer adamu ( Reveiw)
RESIDENTS of communities in Ishielu
Local government area of Ebonyi State are presently living in fear of an
imminent disaster. Their fear derives from the belief that the
Eguho-Ebonyi bridge in the area would soon collapse if urgent steps are not
taken to either rehabilitate or reconstruct it.
Presently no vehicle of any class,
including motorcycle, is allowed to ply the bridge any longer to avoid mishap.
The Eguho-Ebonyi Bridge which links
the whole of Ishielu LGA, including Ntezi, Ezzagu Ezekuna, Ezzagu, Azuinyaba,
and Agba-Ezekoma communities, with its counterparts in the area failed last
week as residents, commuters and motorists were compelled to take alternative
routes to their various destinations
Vanguard Metro, VM, learnt that the
bridge which was built over 40 years ago became weak as a result of huge water
pressure on its abutments during the last heavy down pour that lasted over
three days in the state. The bridge also failed because of the huge traffic on
it during the last Ezza-Ezillo crisis in the state.
During the crisis which started in
2008, the bridge served as the safest alternative escape route for those
fleeing the insurgency in Ezza-Ezillo communities.
The state of the bridge wouldn’t
have worried most people in the area if not for the delay in the completion of
the ongoing Bridge of Unity embarked upon by the Governor Martin Elechi-led
administration since 2008.
This project suffered setbacks
allegedly because of the poor engineering design and death of the former
contractor who handled it from inception.
This development, VM gathered, did
not only paralyse socio-economic activities in the area but also hindered free
flow of goods and services into the state. In addition, it has also
affected the supply of medical services as bereaved families now carry the
corpses of their loved ones during burial ceremonies through alternative routes,
while women undergoing antenatal are also suffer the same fate.
VM gathered that a popular market in
the area, Nwafor Eluoji Market, which is popular for items like garri, okro,
yam, groundnut, among others, is no longer booming as a result of the collapsing
bridge. The market which is older than the state usually attracted marketers
from other states in the South East geopolitical zone of the country.
Assessing the level of defects on
the bridge in company of a team of engineers, the State Commissioner for Works
and Transport, Chukwuma Nwandugo, assured the people of government’s commitment
to ensure that the bridge was repaired and made passable by both commuters and
motorists in no distant time. He affirmed that the reasons for the failure of
the bridge were traceable to the level of traffic on it during the last
Ezza-Ezillo war in the state and also due to the heavy down pour in the area
which soaked both the soil and abutments of the bridge.
He said: “What we have there is a
failure of the abutment which has made it, of course, impossible for people to
pass.
Metal reinforcement
From my assessment, we discovered
that it required metal reinforcement that will be welded on both ends that will
now make motorists and vehicles to pass through it easily. For now, vehicles
cannot pass because of the vacuum created and I believe that in no distant time
we will be able to rectify the situation and the bridge will be put to use
again.
“From my findings, there is no
single casuality from that because no vehicle was on the bridge when that
happened and nobody was also on top of the bridge. My discovery is that it was
as a result of hugewater pressure that came on the abutment and this abutment
is not the type we use now; it is the colonial type which is not reinforced at
all and so due to water pressure the concrete became weak and gave way and that
is why we have that failure on the abutment. It is not a difficult job to do.
All we have to do is extend the abutment away from the failed spot. Everything
has to be in alignment with the big centre abutment. I hope that within a short
period this anomaly will be solved; I’m appealing to the people to reduce the
pressure on this metal bridge to avoid any casuality”.
As soon as we connect this to that,
everything is metal; metal work does not take so much time, the state
government is swinging into action immediately.
“We will swing into action as
quickly as tomorrow (today); we are going to commence all sorts of metal work
and when you are doing metal work, it doesn’t take time and very soon the
bridge will be put to use” Meantime, the member representing Ishielu South
Constituency at the State House of Assembly, Hon. Julius Nwokpor noted that
with the failure of the bridge, the people of the area could no longer come into
their communities again except through Enugu state.
Source: By PETER OKUTU
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