Roads Authority blamed for bridge damage

Engineers and critics have blamed the Roads Authority (RA) for allowing poor workmanship on the bridge on the Nsanje-Marka M1 Road that was partially washed away by rains on January 8.

But RA spokesperson Portia Kajanga yesterday said the damage is not a result of poor workmanship, but lack of protection works which were to start this month.

She also described the damage as minor and has indicated that the protection works are scheduled to be done between January and May this year.

The bridge on Malindi River in Mwanda Village, Senior Chief Malemia, is part of the 25-kilometre road being constructed by China Railways at an estimated cost of K11 billion.

The damage has stirred debate among engineers under the Malawi Engineering Institution with some members questioning and faulting the designing of the bridge itself as a possible cause for the damage.

In separate interviews yesterday, two construction engineers faulted RA for what they call poor designing which may have left the bridge prone to damage.

Ac cor d ing to the engineers the designing of the bridge should have been done in a way that allows it to withstand heavy rains or water from the river.

“One wonders how RA could not anticipate such damage. The damage exposes lack of seriousness at Roads Authority,” observed one engineer who refused to be named.

But Kajanga, in written response, said construction works are on-going and their contractor is expected to do protection works to help guard against this kind of damage.

She said: “The damage is due to absence of protection works, which were scheduled to be done between January and May 2022. They were already part of the designs.

“In addition to this, considering the extent of the rainfall that the area has received, this damage is minor. If this was substandard work, [the whole work] could have been washed away.”

Kajanga said the road project is still under the contractor, who is already doing remedial works on the damaged section of the bridge.

She said the works were expected to be completed by yesterday.

“After the remedial works they will proceed to do protection works so that when more water comes we should not have incidences like these,” said Kajanga.

Malawi Engineering Institution president Alfonso Chikuni yesterday said the institute has commissioned an investigation to understand what went wrong on the bridge.

He said a team of five engineers have been deployed to conduct the investigation.

Chikuni said: “We know the public is interested to know what may have happened and as an institute we have taken interest in the matter. We will do our investigation and share with the public our findings,” he said.

However, social commentator Undule Mwakasungula said RA and engineers hired to do the designs for this project owe Malawians an explanation.

He said: “Contractors are often blamed for such problems, but nobody ever blames the engineers who do these designs. Roads Authority hires consultants to do the designs and come up with specifications according to my knowledge.

“Contractors implement designs based on what the client has provided them. This is why we need to get to the bottom of this issue”.

Last year, President Lazarus Chakwera assured people of Nsanje district that construction works of this road project would be completed by December last year.

He made the remarks when he toured construction works of the project.

The Nsanje-Marka Road project is an economically important one as it connects Malawi and Mozambique.

Government also has plans to turn the Bingu wa Mutharika inspired Nsanje Inland Port into a trans-shipment point, meaning there is likely to be more traffic between Marka and Nsanje and the need for an improved road infrastructure.