Buipe and Yapei bridges closed

The Ghana Highway Authority has closed the Yapei and Buipe bridges in the Central Gonja District of the Northern Region. The shutting down was necessitated by deep cracks that have recently developed in the two overpasses.

The Buipe and Yapei bridges connect the southern part of the country to the three northern regions as well as neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

But, deep cracks have cropped up in the two bridges lately; posing a serious danger to commuters on that stretch since caving-in or some other disaster can occur.

To prevent the unforeseen from happening, the Ghana Highway Authority has closed the bridges to allow for repairs at the damaged parts.

But, the closure has resulted in huge traffic jams in both towns of Buipe and Yapei, leading to mounting agitations by commuters and drivers.

Their beef is that prior notification should have been served road users on that stretch, but, no such information was relayed to them.

They, nonetheless, urged the government to fix the bridge once and for all to avert a recurrence of the hassle commuters are currently going through in the near future.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Attah, and some engineers at the department have inspected the two bridges to ascertain the extent of the damage.

He immediately confirmed the need for the closure, entreating commuters to endure the inconvenience caused them.

Northern Regional Minister Salifu Saeed described the situation as a security issue, calling on commuters to bear with the engineers as they fixed the broken parts.