Overloaded truck damages portions of Ashaiman overpass

The structural integrity of the overpass linking Ashaiman to Tema has been compromised by the damage caused to one of the 12 beams beneath the bridge by an articulated truck that was transporting a steam boiler, the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) has said.

As such, officials have directed the Ashaiman Divisional Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTD) not to allow any heavy-duty vehicle to travel on the bridge until proper assessments have been done on the temporary axle load that could be allowed to ply the route before the damage is fixed.

The haulage truck, with registration number GT 559 U, which was transporting a biomass fired steam boiler meant for a toilet tissue paper manufacturing company at Budumburam in the Central Region, got stuck under the overpass on the motorway near the Ashaiman tollbooth as a result of the cargo exceeding the five-metre allowable axel limit from the ground.

Exposed

The damage has exposed the iron rods and pipes within the concrete structure, a situation the engineers said might require a total replacement of the entire beam structure.

An external sidewall trailer used to secure the cargo on the truck also got stuck in the beam, thereby forcing the head of the truck to decouple from it.

The incident, which occurred at about 4:38 a.m. yesterday, an eyewitnesses said, led to a loud noise around the bridge, with an accompanying vibration of the earth, causing some commuters to flee in fear.

It took the police and a private towing firm about seven hours to remove the truck and the cargo from under the bridge.

Officials had to use a combined weight of 55 and 30 tonnage cranes to lift the boiler from the articulated truck.

The incident created a gridlock along the motorway, causing a spillover into Tema and Ashaiman.

GHA

The Director of Bridges at the GHA, Mr Yakubu Koray, who visited the motorway to have first hand information on the incident, indicated that the load limit on the bridge required immediate reduction until detailed assessments were done.

He expressed worry that such incidents across the country had become a recurrent phenomenon to the authority.

The GHA, he said, was determined to use this latest accident as a test case by surcharging the driver of the truck, Abdullai Fatawu, and the cargo owners with the cost of the repairs of the infrastructure, if found culpable.

He was of the view that although the allowable limits were often inscribed visibly on bridges, “we have realised that haulage truck drivers in particular do not take them into consideration”.

Police

The Ashaiman Municipal Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Division (MTTD), Superintendent Mr Isaac Kojo Forson, said the truck and the cargo would be impounded to enable investigations to be conducted into the incident.

He hinted that the driver would likely be put before court for causing damage to public property.

Supt Forson, who expressed disappointment at the port authorities for not enforcing the axle load limit on the truck before it exited their terminals, said the Ashaiman MTTD would collaborate with the Tema MTTD to enforce the temporary ban on huge haulage trucks plying the overpass until otherwise directed by the GHA.

He also appealed to the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and the Meridian Port Service (MPS) to ensure that haulage drivers, including those in transit, conformed to the load limit at the port.

Driver

The driver of the truck told the media that he did some survey upon getting to the overpass and was surprised the cargo got stuck and damaged portions of the bridge.