By Victor Otuya - Asaba
The people of Sapele and Ethiope West local government areas of Delta State now live in fear of an imminent collapse of the bridge linking Sapele and Ethiope parts of the State.
The Bridge otherwise known as Gammon Bridge was constructed in the 1960s by the construction giant Julius Berger and since then it has not been maintained except once in 1982 during the second republic regime of Professor Ambrose Folorunsho Alli in the old Bendel State.
Apart from this one time effort, no successive government had made any attempt to work on the bridge.
The last time something was mentioned about the bridge was in 2011, when the then majority leader but now Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Monday Ovwigho Igbuya and Hon. Barr. John Obukohwo Nani, then member representing Ethiope West Constituency in the state House of Assembly, raised the issues of the deplorable state on the floor of the assembly under issues of urgent importance and it was referred to the committee of the house.
The Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC) later undertook a project to repair the bridge. However, whatever repairs DESOPADEC carried out may now be threatening the bridge. Residents said that the intervention is now threatening the life span of a bridge.
In fact, a resident expressed fear that if their appeal for urgent repair was ignored that “although, we do not pray for something bad to happen, the bridge may collapse before our very eyes.”
He described the temporary intervention measures of DESOPADEC as “poor engineering concept by untrained contractors” said that heavy concrete side pavements had been constructed on the bridge thus putting more weight on the already weakened bridge.
A drive through the bridge exposes its deplorable state and the urgent need to fix it without further delay. The bridge is worn out even as the supporting pillars are weak and exposed. Cracks and pot- holes are common features on the bridge and it shakes when vehicles ply through.
The calibre of vehicles that ply the bridge on daily basis does not help the issue. These vehicles are mainly heavy duty articulated trucks carrying timbers, sand, granite, cements and associated farm produce. Moreover, they said that whenever it rains, flood of water creates a lake of sorts on the bridge.
“Anytime it rains, most motorists avoid the Gammon Bridge because the flood could submerge smaller cars except articulated trucks. They assess Ethiope West through Amukpe by connecting Warri- Benin express way.
“The anguish of those who passed through the bridge is great. The fear of potential collapse is everywhere and the appeal now is that the bridge should be reinforced before it collapses and kills people,” a local resident said.
The people are now worried that the bridge could collapse under the heavy load DESOPADEC engineers had put on it.
Some of the road users who spoke to Daily Independent said that though the action of DESOPADEC was well intended, the execution of the plan was faulty and driven by every sense of profiteering by those saddled with the management of DESOPADEC resources in the area.
The residents wondered why the DESOPADEC contractor decided to put the heavy concrete side pavement on the bridge when the original contractor that built the bridge put light side bars on it.
According to a resident who expressed disappointment that nobody was thinking of rehabilitating the bridge before it collapsed. “Now that the bridge has not collapsed nobody will talk about it, but, when it will collapse and kill people that is when both the Federal Government and the state government will come out to bury the dead in a mass grave, build and lay wreath at their cenotaph, declared a day of national mourning and refer to the dead as heroes who died for the progress of the country.”
The people said that the more the Gammon Bridge was neglected, the more it had continued to wear out and the more the danger of the reality that the bridge could collapse one day.
They appealed to the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa-led government to give urgent priority to the reconstruction of the bridge before it collapsed as the primary responsibility of government all over the world is to provide for the overall well being of its citizens.
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