Manafwa Bridge collapses

By Faustine Odeke

TRAFFIC flow along Tororo-Mbale highway has been diverted after the collapse of parts of the Manafwa Bridge that links Southern Sudan to the coastal town of Mombasa.

The route is popular with haulers from Malaba, Busia that ply to Juba via Tororo, Mbale, Soroti, Lira, Corner Kamdini and Gulu.

Bennice Kiganda the acting station engineer at Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) Mbale said the deck of the bridge collapsed on Friday and the traffic was diverted on Monday to allow repairs

A notice issued to the public via different media platforms states that “All motorists and the general public were advised to obey all the safety measures put in place”. 

“UNRA informs motorists and members of the general public using Mbale -Tororo Road that there is a failure of the bridge deck at Manafwa” it continues.

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Traffic to Kampala has since been temporarily diverted to Busia-Rukhonge and Mbale-Bubulo roads as the UNRA technical team embarks on works to repair the bridge.

“Most of our bridges were designed to live for 50 years but this particular one has collapsed because it has outlived its life span’’ Kiganda said.

Kiganda said although the bridge was planned for reconstruction next year, they are going to work on the broken deck and have the road opened to the traffic as soon as possible.

“The whole corridor of the road network from Malaba border to Kamudini junction and Nimule border  has been planned for expansion and all the bridges repaired under the OPRC project that is funded by the World Bank. The whole process is under procurement and we expect to overhaul the reconstructions of all this old bridges” Kiganda added.

Wilson Kamyuka the UNRA Tororo station engineer said they have mobilized machinery to ensure that the diversion is motorable and ensure that vehicles don’t get stuck and block the road for other motorists.