President Mahama reopens refurbished Adomi Bridge

The refurbished Adomi bridge (c) Facebook 

President John Mahama has reopened the rehabilitated Adomi bridge at Atimpoku in the eastern region to commuters, Saturday afternoon.

The 335 metre suspension steel bridge across the Volta river was refurnished at a cost of 12.9 million euros by Bilfinger MCE GmbH of Austria within the period of 20months. 

The rehabilitation saw  the reinforcement of  steel beams  beneath the bridge deck, replacement of the hanger cables holding  the suspended  deck  to the steel arch, replacement of concrete on steel deck with asphalt and the provision pedestrian concrete walkway.

Speaking at the recommissioning ceremony, President Mahama noted that, the rehabilitation became necessary following deep cracks that have developed on  parts of the steel beams as a result of excess weight from overloaded trucks.

He therefore  cautioned  drivers  to adhere to axle load requirement and urged officials of the Ghana highways authority to enforce  the laws by  not allowing overloaded  trucks to access to the bridge, in order to elongate its life span.

Rehabilitated Adomi bridge to be opened to traffic

Adomi Bridge

Motorists who use the Adomi bridge to connect to Accra and other parts of the country will soon heave a sigh of relief, when President Mahama reopens the rehabilitated bridge situated at Atimpoku in the eastern region to vehicular traffic  this weekend.

This follows the completion of an 18 months extensive  rehabilitation works by the  Austrian construction and Engineering  firm, Bilfinger MCE GmbH on the  335metre bridge,  spanning across the Volta river.

The bridge which  connects  the Volta region  to other parts of the country through  the eastern region, was closed down in March 2014, for its  first  major rehabilitation after it was commissioned over  five decades ago.

The  closure  created a lot of inconvenience to   motorists and  travelers moving from the central and northern parts of the Volta region to the national capital, Accra, as they spent long hours waiting   to cross the river with the two ferries provided by the Ghana  Highway Authority at Senchi.