Date: Sep 26, 2019 .BY: Benjamin Xornam Glover &
Della Russel Ocloo
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| The truck stuck under the overpass |
The structural integrity of the overpass linking Ashaiman to
Tema has been compromised by the damage caused to one of the 12 beams beneath
the bridge by an articulated truck that was transporting a steam boiler, the
Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) has said.
As such, officials have directed the Ashaiman Divisional
Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTD) not to allow any heavy-duty vehicle to
travel on the bridge until proper assessments have been done on the temporary
axle load that could be allowed to ply the route before the damage is fixed.
The haulage truck, with registration number GT 559 U, which
was transporting a biomass fired steam boiler meant for a toilet tissue paper
manufacturing company at Budumburam in the Central Region, got stuck under the
overpass on the motorway near the Ashaiman tollbooth as a result of the cargo
exceeding the five-metre allowable axel limit from the ground.
Exposed
The damage has exposed the iron rods and pipes within the
concrete structure, a situation the engineers said might require a total
replacement of the entire beam structure.
An external sidewall trailer used to secure the cargo on the
truck also got stuck in the beam, thereby forcing the head of the truck to
decouple from it.
The incident, which occurred at about 4:38 a.m. yesterday,
an eyewitnesses said, led to a loud noise around the bridge, with an
accompanying vibration of the earth, causing some commuters to flee in fear.
It took the police and a private towing firm about seven
hours to remove the truck and the cargo from under the bridge.
Officials had to use a combined weight of 55 and 30 tonnage
cranes to lift the boiler from the articulated truck.
The incident created a gridlock along the motorway, causing
a spillover into Tema and Ashaiman.
GHA
The Director of Bridges at the GHA, Mr Yakubu Koray, who
visited the motorway to have first hand information on the incident, indicated
that the load limit on the bridge required immediate reduction until detailed
assessments were done.
He expressed worry that such incidents across the country
had become a recurrent phenomenon to the authority.
The GHA, he said, was determined to use this latest accident
as a test case by surcharging the driver of the truck, Abdullai Fatawu, and the
cargo owners with the cost of the repairs of the infrastructure, if found
culpable.
He was of the view that although the allowable limits were
often inscribed visibly on bridges, “we have realised that haulage truck
drivers in particular do not take them into consideration”.
Police
The Ashaiman Municipal Commander of the Motor Traffic and
Transport Division (MTTD), Superintendent Mr Isaac Kojo Forson, said the truck
and the cargo would be impounded to enable investigations to be conducted into
the incident.
He hinted that the driver would likely be put before court
for causing damage to public property.
Supt Forson, who expressed disappointment at the port
authorities for not enforcing the axle load limit on the truck before it exited
their terminals, said the Ashaiman MTTD would collaborate with the Tema MTTD to
enforce the temporary ban on huge haulage trucks plying the overpass until
otherwise directed by the GHA.
He also appealed to the Ghana Ports
Driver
The driver of the truck told the media that he did some
survey upon getting to the overpass and was surprised the cargo got stuck and
damaged portions of the bridge.
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