,WARRI – Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, on Wednesday, said reports of a bridge collapse at Obo River on the Ogwashi-Uku Kwale Road, was untrue. Okowa stated this during an unscheduled inspection of the project and said that the road, currently being dualized, caved in at a small spot by the river, on Monday but was quickly fixed.
He explained that the little challenge occured when a diversion created for the construction of a bridge on the road overwhelmed the temporary channel, causing it to erode the soil and culverts underneath. According to the governor,
“The incident at Obo River is not a collapsed bridge. It’s actually a collapsed road; not the bridge itself because the bridge is just about being constructed.
“What happened was that with the diversion of the Obo River coupled with a lot of rains, the swell up of the rain caused the collapse of the road.
“We were told that they worked up to 1:30 a.m to get the road back. And, you saw on site that they are trying to do another diversion to enable them start the bridge itself. So work is ongoing there,” he stated.
At the Kwale-Beneku Bridge, the governor expressed dismaywith the slow pace of work, andcharged the contractor to hasten work on the project.
“We did inspect the Kwale/ Benekuku Bridge. I believe they are slow. We were told that they have some issues, which they have resolved. But even whenthey were slow, you can see thatthere is still some progress.
“It is supposed to be an 18-span bridge of 20 meters each, that is 360 meters of bridge. They are already about completing the 10th one and the deck itself.
“I hope, as we were told, that in another two months, they will be able to complete the rest of it. I wished that the speed of work should have been faster than this because on this particular project, the state government is constantly on course in the payment for jobs done,” he said. Okowa, who also inspected the Sector A of the Ughelli-Asaba Road dualisation, commended the new contractor for the progress made so far on the project. He said that there was a wide difference between the previous contractor and the new one- Levant Nigeria Limited.
“Initially, we met the previous company working on it. But after a few years, we realised that they were not just good enough, and we had to negotiate them out of the contract.
“We can now see lots of progress. You can see the number of equipment and people working and in a few months’ time, this section will be completed,” he stated.