The officials at the bridge site.
Contract has been awarded for the construction of a steel bridge at Otokporlu in the YiloKrobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.
The 100-year-old bridge links the three Krobo towns of YiloKrobo, Lower ManyaKrobo, and Upper ManyaKrobo.
The residents have on many occasions threatened demonstrations over the poor state of the bridge; successive governments since the Rawlings era having done nothing about it. Government has now taken a bold move to ensure that a new bridge is constructed as part of 50 bridges to be constructed across the country.
Funds for the project will be realized from a €47m Czech Republic loan facility, contracted in December 2018 following Parliament approval.
The Ghana Highways Authority (GHA), led by the Eastern Regional Minister, Charles Adubofuor and the municipal chief executives of Yilo and ManyaKrobo, Messrs Ebenezer TettehKupualor and Simon KwekuTetteh respectively, alongside Emmanuel OwusuAnsah of JoshobConstruction Limited, visited the bridge site and officially handed it over to the contractor, for him to begin construction works accordingly.
The contractornoted that owing to the raining season, the main bridge work on the river would begin later, while the road network starts immediately, 50m away from the bridge.
He explained that the bridge would be built with reinforced concrete structures erected from right within the river, with a steel metal covering for the top, for vehicular passageway, and a two-lane walk-way, which would be higher than the current bridge.
The contractor was tasked to connect the adjoining links of the bridge, to and from Odumase and Otokporlu township respectively.
Okwenya
In a related development, a bridge in the Okwenya community has also been awarded for construction to a different constructing firm, AsabeaEngineering Limited,at the cost of about GH¢12m.
The contractor has in last week begun dredging the river passageway, clearing of the site, and setting up accommodation for workers.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Otokporlu