A bridge at Okwenya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality, in the Eastern Region, is under reconstruction as Asabea Engineering Limited begun work on Saturday, 20 March 2021.
When Rite 90.1 FM’s Community Watch visited the site on Monday morning, dredging of a river passageway, clearing of the site, and setting up of accommodation for workers was ongoing.
According to Ing. Dan who spoke to team Community Watch on behalf of Asabea Engineering Limited said, these basic preliminary works including the construction of bypass for vehicles and other road users will pave way for the core reconstruction work on the bridge.
Though the effort to get contract details from Ing. Dan did not yield results, information from the corridors of power within the municipality says the cost of the contract is about GHC12m. The source further noted that the main contractor is a Czech Republic firm, which is responsible for the main work.
“At a cost of GHC4m, Asabea Engineering Limited will construct a bypass and set the ground for the reconstruction of the entire bridgework,” the source told Omanba Kodwo Boafo on Sunday evening in a telephone conversation.
Rite FM follow-up at the Eastern Regional Roads and Highways Authority on the Oterkporlu bridge in the same municipality revealed that processes are far advanced for work to start. From 2018, several public cries including serious talking points and agitations emerged as a result of the current state of the two bridges.
The project is expected to be completed in eighteen months.
However, Rite FM is learning that team of Engineers, local authorities and Joshob Construction Ltd, the firm which won the bid for the reconstruction of the Oterkporlu Bridge will visit the project scene Thursday, 26 March 2021 at 11:00 am.
Expected Outlook of Otokporlu Bridge When Reconstructed
If the outcome of a meeting held between Kloma Gbi and the government on Wednesday, 29 May 2019 at the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly is still useful, then the new Otokporlu Bridge when reconstructed will be a composite bridge. It means concrete sub-structure that will be in the water or the main support structure with the rest being steel.
Explaining an outlook of the bridge, Ing. Emmanuel Kwesi of the Ghana Highways Authority said, “it will be far higher than the current one to prevent the near-flooding situation we see now. The flooding too is quite a new problem due to the presence of a Dam which was constructed a few years ago upstream for agricultural purposes.” He noted in 2019.
Kloma Gbi reporting on its Facebook page after the said meeting said “the new bridge will be bigger (wider width) to allow two-way movement of vehicles- different from the current situation where only one vehicle can cross the bridge at a time.”
The report further said, “the bend that confronts users from Odumase side of the road will be improved to make that portion of the road almost like a straight course. Thus there will be a small diversion which will make the road higher at that new section. This will also help ‘level-up the hilly sections of the road that leads to the bridge from both sides; which is expected to make the road and bridge more convenient for users. The old bridge will thus be used as a by-pass whiles work on the new one commences and progresses.”
How It All Started
In 2018, road users and residents in Yilo and Manya Krobo enclave descended on government authorities in the area following their claim that the two bridges have outlived their lifespan.
A Municipal Director for Yilo Korbo National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Mr. Jackso Bruku told Rite Morning Ride in November 2018, that an assessment conducted by his regional office revealed that the edifice was weak, and needed rehabilitation.
Mr. Adolf Nomo, who is a Krobo indigene based in the United Kingdom launched advocacy calling on the government appointees and Members of Parliament for the three Krobo constituencies to join forces to ensure the bridges caught the attention of the central government.
Rite FM’s Community Watch has made persistent calls on both local and regional authorities to get the bridges renovated.
In August 2018, we engaged the then Eastern Regional Minister, Hon. Eric Kwakye Darfuor in his office at Koforidua if his outfit was working to reconstruct the bridges that have provoked many talking points.
After several minutes of question to question conversation between the representative of Rite FM, Omanba Kodow Boafo, and the minister, the latter acknowledged and accepted that he and the Ghana Highways Authority Engineer for the region were going to conduct an impact assessment on the Oterkporlu Bridge.
He said the exercise was going to help the engineers drew appropriate designs for a new bridge to meet the current user demands.
At a function in New Somanya during the commissioning of a newly built police post, the Member of Parliament for Yilo Krobo Constituency at the time, Hon Magnus Kofi Amoatey told Rite FM that parliament has approved a €47m Czech Republic loan in December 2018 for the reconstruction of 50 bridges including Otorkporlu and Okwenya.
The same month, Wednesday 29 May 2019, a Krobo based civil society organization group Kloma Gbi, had met stakeholders, Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly, and engineers including Ing. Emmanuel Kwesi Rockson from the regional Highways Authority for the way forward on the two bridges.
In the referenced meeting, the resolution was that the two bridges needed reconstruction and that by end of 2019 work was going to start.
The government, having declared 2020 the year of roads in its 2020 annual budget statement, hopes of Krobo residents were high, expecting ultra-modern bridges.
However, the hopes of the people ended in no show as all their calls through radio phone-in sections did not yield results.
Coincidentally, work on the reconstruction of the Okwenya Bridge begun in a week when some residents including local journalists jumped on social media with pictures of the current poor state of the two bridges, asking the government and local authorities when they were going to pay attention to their call.
All things being equal, work on Okwenya is expected to be completed by end of August 2022. Meanwhile, Rite FM can confirm that work at Oterkporlu will soon begin.
