By URN
The Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) plans to install a temporary bridge as more floating vegetation continues to clog Pakwach bridge.
The latest development comes as the authority grapples with the dredging of the massive cluster of floating vegetation that continues to gather beneath the already fatigued bridge structure .
Allan Ssempebwa, the media relations, Public and Corporate Affairs at UNRA explains that the move is a temporary measure to avert potential collapse of the current bridge structure as they plan for the construction of a new bridge at Pakwach on Albert Nile.
According to Ssempebwa, they have already commenced the procurement exercise for a new permanent long span bridge at Pakwach.
“To avert potential collapse, cutting off connectivity along this route, and to the neighbouring countries, plans are now underway to install a temporary jetty crossing”, Ssempebwa noted.
In just a space of nine months this year, Pakwach bridge structure has twice been clogged by floating vegetation with the latest in August, where a massive cluster of floating papyrus vegetation uprooted upstream by strong currents accumulated near the bridge structure.
However, Robert Omito Steen, the LCV chairperson Pakwach district, believes the only durable solution is for the government to design and construct a new permanent bridge.
“A very old colonial bridge is what we are talking about. It has over the years developed cracks beneath,”, Omito said.
Besides the floating vegetation, Pakwach Bridge has over the years been grappling with persistent flooding of River Tangi that often cut off traffic flow along Karuma-Olwiyo-Pakwach highway.
The current Pakwach bridge built under the mandate of the Uganda Railways Corporation in 1960s, was primarily meant to connect the railway to the West Nile region.
