Build another bridge at Jinja
Mar 05, 2007
SIR — Uganda and its neighbours in the West and North rely heavily on the road transport along the Northern Corridor.
SIR — Uganda and its neighbours in the West and North rely heavily on the road transport along the Northern Corridor.
This corridor happens to have a single important bridge at the Owen Falls Dam, Jinja.
The nearest alternative to this bridge is the railway crossing just a kilometre upstream near the source of the Nile. Otherwise, one would have to endure the longer murram stretch through Soroti - Lira road to cross at Karuma bridge.
I am not sure, and I stand to be corrected, if anybody in the national planning system of this country has ever thought of a scenario that the Jinja bridge could one time get a problem to compel the use of alternative route to Kampala and beyond.
The ever-increasing traffic flow on this bridge, with increasing haulage capacity (now some trucks load close to 50 tonnes) could one day surprise this nation with a collapse on the 50-year-old bridge.
I am not a “night dancer†but I foresee a day when something may happen to force the Government to provide alternative routing while arranging to repair the bridge. Repair of such an immense facility is not a simple project that would last a short while. It cannot be done without stretching users’ patience and terribly disrupting business.
I am prompted to mention this after observing how much time it took to repair a simpler break-down on Mpologoma bridge on Tirinyi Road which occurred in November last year.
I have not had opportunity to see the design of the proposed Bujagali power generation project, but I think it would be wise for the Government to provide for a road crossing like that at Owens falls Dam.
I am sure that additional cost would be justified by cost of the disruption that could arise if the current crossing needed repairs that would necessitate its temporary closure.
Johnson Muhumuza
Entebbe
This corridor happens to have a single important bridge at the Owen Falls Dam, Jinja.
The nearest alternative to this bridge is the railway crossing just a kilometre upstream near the source of the Nile. Otherwise, one would have to endure the longer murram stretch through Soroti - Lira road to cross at Karuma bridge.
I am not sure, and I stand to be corrected, if anybody in the national planning system of this country has ever thought of a scenario that the Jinja bridge could one time get a problem to compel the use of alternative route to Kampala and beyond.
The ever-increasing traffic flow on this bridge, with increasing haulage capacity (now some trucks load close to 50 tonnes) could one day surprise this nation with a collapse on the 50-year-old bridge.
I am not a “night dancer†but I foresee a day when something may happen to force the Government to provide alternative routing while arranging to repair the bridge. Repair of such an immense facility is not a simple project that would last a short while. It cannot be done without stretching users’ patience and terribly disrupting business.
I am prompted to mention this after observing how much time it took to repair a simpler break-down on Mpologoma bridge on Tirinyi Road which occurred in November last year.
I have not had opportunity to see the design of the proposed Bujagali power generation project, but I think it would be wise for the Government to provide for a road crossing like that at Owens falls Dam.
I am sure that additional cost would be justified by cost of the disruption that could arise if the current crossing needed repairs that would necessitate its temporary closure.
Johnson Muhumuza
Entebbe