Motorway bridge undergoes emergency maintenance

Emergency maintenance works have begun on the damaged bridge over the Gbemi Stream on the Accra-Tema Motorway near the Ashaiman Underpass.

The works, being carried out by the Bridge Maintenance Unit of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), are meant to put the bridge in good shape for use by motorists.

The works, which will take six weeks to complete, involve the erection of a gabion wall and a retaining wall made of stacked stone-filled gabions tied together with wires to replace the wing walls which have been washed away due to erosion.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic yesterday, the Project Manager, Alhaji Ameenu Abubakar, said an observation of the damaged bridge had revealed that the apron had partly collapsed.

He said as part of the works, boulder in-filling and grouting of the underside of the ground slabs would be carried out.

Urgent repairs

The Greater Accra Regional Director of the GHA, Mr Lawrence L. L. Lamptey, said the repair works was urgently needed to prevent the entire road from collapsing after a heavy rainstorm.

According to Mr Lamptey, the damage was detected during a routine inspection on the road network by a technical team on the motorway on September 29, 2020.

“The inspection revealed that an unknown driver had rammed his vehicle into the crash barrier on top of the concrete bridge after the Ashaiman underpass along the Tema-bound carriageway. This has destroyed one of the wing-walls of the bridge making it unstable”, Mr Lamptey stated.

Currently, one of the wing-walls has collapsed and separated from the bridge abutment wall,” he explained.

The repair works according to Mr Lamptey, will take about six weeks to complete and therefore, urged motorists to adhere to safety measures taken in and around the site.

Erosion

The bridge facilitates the flow of water from the Gbemi Stream from Ashaiman across the motorway to the Sakumo Ramser Lagoon.

However, due to erosion, the wing walls have been washed away, a situation that could threaten safety on a section of the motorway.

When the Daily Graphic visited the site, it was observed that erosion had eaten deep into the outer lane of the Tema-bound section of the motorway near the Ashaiman Underpass.

The deep gully, according to some users of the road, had been created for many months now.

Mr Abdulai Issaka, a farmer who cultivates a piece of land near the bridge, said the erosion started a long time ago but had worsened in the last few days.

He said the embankment of the bridge got eroded with every rainfall, which swelled the stream, and expressed worry that the authorities had not taken any measures to repair the bridge.

Background

Following a video on the development that went viral, officials of the GHA moved in to conduct an assessment and subsequently dispatched the Bridge Maintenance Unit to conduct an assessment and immediate repair works.

Writer’s email: benjamin.glover@graphic.com.gh