Mozambique: Overweight trucks have destroyed 15 bridges

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Mozambique: Overweight trucks have destroyed 15 bridges

8:38 CAT | 27 Sep 2019

FILE: For illustration purposes only. [File photo: AIM Moçambique]

Over the last five years overloaded trucks have destroyed 15 bridges on Mozambican roads, causing total losses of 1.2 billion meticais (about 19.5 million US dollars), according to the Minister of Public Works, Joao Machatine, cited in Thursday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

Recent natural disasters damaged a further 107 bridges. Speaking in the central province of Zambezia, Machatine put the cost of repairing these bridges at 33.8 million meticais.

Machatine said the government allocates crucial importance to bridges, since they are the parts of the road network most prone to destruction during the floods which frequently strike the country.

There are 1,297 bridges on Mozambican roads. Most of these (1,115) are conventional, but there are also 143 metallic and 39 wooden bridges.

The destruction of bridges, Machatine said, causes serious problems for road traffic, putting additional costs on the movement of goods, and contributing to poverty.

“We cannot allow bridges to be destroyed because of excess weight”, he declared. “This is avoidable, and we can change this paradigm”.

Machatine added that the government intends to adopt a National Security Plan for bridges to ensure their longevity and their resilience to extreme events.

The government, he said, plans to build 10 strategic bridges over the next five years, at a cost of about 5.5 billion meticais.

Machatine said the total cost of the effective maintenance of roads and bridges was at least 2.5 billion meticais a year, but the budget available for this expenditure is only 85 million meticais.

Source: AIM