Artistic impression of the New Jinja Bridge
By Joel Ogwang
COME January 2017, Uganda will boast of the first
cable-stayed bridge, and one of the biggest and deluxe bridge projects
in East and Central Africa. And, at completion, the 525m-long iconic new
Nile Bridge, with a life-span of 100-years, will consume the longest
single-plane cable configuration in Africa and will go a long way in
boosting Uganda’s trade and tourism potentials.
“The new Nile Bridge will consume stay-cables equal to three times
the driving distance between Kampala and Mombasa or twice the distance
between Kampala and Dar-es-Salaam via Nairobi, almost surrounding Lake
Victoria,” said works state minister, Eng. John Byabagambi.
Conceived after Byabagambi’s plea over the continued deterioration
of the old Nalubaale Bridge that would de-link Uganda to the outside
world if it collpased in 2005, the new 22.9m-wide state-of-the-art
bridge will also comprise a seven-metre wide dual carriageway with
pedestrian walkways of 2.25m on both sides, central span of 290m, end
spans of 135m and 200m complete with night lighting facilities.
The realisation of the picturesque bridge will come in four-years’
preceding the launch of its construction in January 2014, following the
signing of a contract between the Uganda government and the contractor.
Representing the government, Kimeze Ssebbugga, the Uganda National
Roads Authority (UNRA) acting executive director and Hirofumi Kunitani,
the Zenitaka Corporation deputy general manager in-charge of
international business at the works and transport ministry head offices
in Kampala on Monday.
Present, among others, were Junzo Fugita, the new Japanese envoy,
Yasutaka Honda, the Zenitaka general manager, transport state minister,
Stephen Chebrot and Eng. David Luyimbazi, the UNRA director of
planning.
Construction of the bridge is funded off a $130m joint-venture
where the Japanese Government through its aid arm, JICA, contributed
$100m while the Government of Uganda funded $30m, including land
acquisition and compensation.
UNRA signed a $14.5m consultancy contract with a joint-venture led by Ms Oriental Consultants, in June 2013.
“This is the first simple loan we have got from Japan and its
conditions are almost interest- free at 0.01%, making it the best loan
the government has ever got,” said Byabagambi.
At completion, the new bridge will complement the old Owen Falls
Dam (Nalubaale) bridge commissioned in 1954 and, so far, the only
northern corridor bridge linking Uganda to Kenya via Busia and Malaba.
Kimeze said 52 Project Affected Persons (PAPs) have been paid
sh16.1b to clear the right of way for the construction of the new Nile
Bridge.
“The old Nalubale Bridge will continue to be used until completion
of the new crossing in December 2017 as closing it would jolt the
economic activities in Uganda and separate the south-eastern part of the
country from the north-eastern regions,” said Kimeze.
“To control traffic load, the contractor will install a digital
health monitoring system which will monitor the load of the traffic on
the bridge, stresses and strains in the cable and will communicate the
distresses which will signal maintenance requirements.”
Honda said Zenitaka would deliver quality work “with great honour
and pleasure of undertaking such a big project”, adding; “Our target is
to complete the bridge within four years with pride and dignity under a
slogan of safety first, no accident and minimum impact on the
environment.”
Fugita noted that the historical bridge was a major step to
improving Uganda’s transport sector. “This time, it will be a show of
Japanese and Korean technology. We hope it serves Uganda for a long time
to come.”
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