Adomi Bridge opens in September

The Adomi Bridge will be opened for use in September, President John Mahama announced this during the inauguration of a fibre optic broadband infrastructure laid along the country’s eastern corridor.

This means that the bridge which spans the Volta River and connects the Volta Region and parts of the Eastern Region to other parts of the country will be completed a month ahead of the October deadline.

The president said the contractor was speeding up work.

In March this year, the Adomi Bridge was closed down for extensive repair works; a project the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) has estimated to cost Ghana €13 million.

Following the closure of the bridge located at Atimpoku, drivers and passengers were faced with various problems in their bid to move to the Volta Region and some parts of the Eastern Region which is cut off from the rest of the country by the Volta River.

The bridge was originally designed by Sir William Halcrow and partners and Freeman Fox and partners and built by Dorman Long Bridge Engineering Limited in 1957.

The repair works is, however, being done by Messrs Bilfinger MCE GmbH of Austria who has so far executed about 78 percent of the work in 14 months.

The repair works covers the replacement of the entire bridge deck of 23 sections. As at last month, 22 of them had been replaced. Each bridge deck, prefabricated in Austria, comes in five pieces, but they are welded together as one before it is launched.

The bridge will now have an inspection platform fixed under the bridge. The platform which will work hydraulically can also be operated at sections to detect any defects that might develop on the bridge.

This feature is to avert the difficulty in detecting faults in the past. An improvised lift fabricated at the project site has been fixed on the bridge to enable artisans to move up the arch and work on the replacement of the hanger cables.