Maintaining bridge could cost 1.2 million dollars a year – AIM report

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Maintaining bridge could cost 1.2 million dollars a year – AIM report

8:22 CAT | 13 Nov 2018

Picture: Global Construction Review

Maintenance of the new suspension bridge over the Bay of Maputo could cost around 1.2 million US dollars a year, according to Maputo-Sul, the public company that operates the bridge.

“The Maputo-Katembe bridge is an undertaking that will require a lot of care if it is to have a long life”, said Basilio Nzunga, the Maputo-Sul official in charge of the bridge, cited by the independent television station STV.

Nzunga said that the company is drawing up a manual that will specify how often each type of maintenance must be undertaken. Maputo-Sul is responsible for the maintenance, but Nzunga did not rule out the possibility of farming out the work to private companies.

He added that Maputo-Sul would have to find ways of paying for the maintenance, since he doubted that the money raised from the tolls on the bridge will be enough.

ALSO READ: Mozambique: Is Maputo-Katembe Bridge also to be paid for with gas revenues?

Vehicles crossing the bridge pay tolls that vary from 160 to 1,200 meticais (from 2.7 to 20 US dollars, at current exchange rates). Motorbikes and light vehicles pay 160 meticais. For medium cargo vehicles, with no more than two axles, the toll is 320 meticais. Heavy goods vehicles with three or four axles pay 750 meticais to cross the bridge. The toll for trucks with five or more axles is 1,200 meticais. There is a 75 per cent reduction in the tolls for public transport buses and minibuses.

Since the bridge has only been open for two days, it is not yet possible to estimate how much money the tolls will raise. The tolls are intended exclusively to pay for maintenance costs and services on the bridge. The money from the tolls will not be used to pay for the 785.8 million dollars lent by the Chinese Exim Bank to pay for the bridge and its connecting roads.

ALSO READ: Road from Ponta do Ouro to Maputo bridge inaugurated

Shortly after President Filipe Nyusi inaugurated the bridge on Saturday, the first traffic accident to hit the project occurred. This was not on the bridge itself, but about 40 kilometres south of Katembe on the connecting road towards the resort of Ponta de Ouro and the border with the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal.

Two people were seriously injured when their vehicle came off the road and overturned, coming to rest 80 metres from the edge of the road. Cited by Mozambique Television (TVM), police officers at the scene said that excessive speed was the likely cause of the accident. The injured people were transferred to the Katembe health centre.

Some motorists and their passengers displayed grossly illegal, and downright dangerous behaviour on the bridge, in the 24 hours after its inauguration. They stopped their cars half way along the bridge to take selfies, and to photograph the breathtaking view over Maputo and the surrounding area.

Some were drinking alcohol, and STV filmed the beer bottles left lying in the bridge gutter. A few, possibly inebriated, even climbed onto the bridge railings, as if they were about to jump into the Bay below. Pictures of this behaviour were posted onto Facebook.

Initially, the traffic police were lenient – one office on a motorbike drove up to the revellers, told them it was illegal to stop on the bridge and asked them to move on.

But the abuses continued, STV reported, and more police arrived. They took a tougher line, seizing the driving licences of the offenders.

Source: AIM