NIGERIA AND FAILURE OF BRIDGES

Government should invest more on maintenance of bridges

At least 21 persons were killed recently after the vehicles they were travelling in fell into a collapsed bridge at Rabadi village in Gwaran Local Government Area of Jigawa State. Among the victims were 11 persons returning to Adamawa from Kano State where they sat for a recruitment screening exercise into the Nigerian Army. The bridge reportedly went down due to torrential rainfall.

While we commiserate with the families of the deceased, the decay in the country’s infrastructure is widespread, and taking its toll on the transportation system. Most roads and bridges across the country are in terrible shape. Like the cases of building collapse, many bridges are also collapsing, causing grave harm, and severing crucial connections across the country. The 2017 collapse of the Tatabu bridge in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, for instance, resulted in large scale suffering for commuters. With a forced diversion of traffic through bush paths, hundreds of commuters heading toward Abuja and other parts of the north were stranded for hours due to gridlocks.

Similarly, the people of Iluju community in Ogbomoso, Oyo State experienced untold difficulties albeit on a smaller scale recently when the only bridge connecting them with other communities collapsed due to excessive rainfall. Even though no lives were lost, the unanticipated consequences ran deep. All social and economic activities were paralysed. More unfortunately, some SSS3 students of Community Secondary School, Iluju who are currently sitting for the WAEC examination could not gain access to their school. The lawmaker representing Oriire State Constituency in the Oyo State House of Assembly, Jacob Bamigboye who visited the area asked Governor Seyi Makinde “to help direct relevant ministry or agency to commence the reconstruction of the bridge.”

Bridges are essential as they offer unique solutions for road and rail traffic to cross rivers, gorges, and other difficult environmental terrains. That is perhaps why they are expensive to construct, particularly in the riverine region of the Niger Delta. But the rampart collapse of many of these structures is worrying, as some of the failed bridges are attributed to faulty designs or inferior materials. In May this year, the Ozuma bridge in Okengwe, Okene local government area of Kogi State, collapsed a week after it was commissioned by the government. The bridge reportedly failed the concrete strength test as inferior materials – 10 mm rods – were allegedly used by the engineers for the construction work. This raises profound questions on contracting and corruption, a subject that is routine across the nation.

However, some bridges fail largely from the effects of nature, exacerbated in recent times by the prevailing climatic changes, with intense weather conditions and floods. A study conducted on the 2017 collapsed Tatabu bridge revealed that the positioning of the bridge within a valley as well as steady increase in precipitation from 2015 to 2017 contributed to its eventual collapse. But exceptional stresses due to the volume of traffic and imposed dead weight can also lead to the collapse of bridges. Indeed, some experts stress the need to install monitoring devices to record stress on bridges. Only recently, a member representing Ovia Federal Constituency, Dennis Idahosa warned that Ugbogui Bridge in Ovia Southwest local government area of Edo State is a disaster waiting to happen. A section of the bridge on the busy Lagos-Benin Highway has caved in and causing unending gridlocks. “One can clearly see the river and also notice the increase in vibration as motorists struggle to find their way through the narrow section that is good”, he said

Overall, there is an urgent need for government, at all levels, to invest more in overseeing and maintaining our bridges to prevent future catastrophe.