Gov’t closes part of Juba Bridge for 45 days pending repair

JUBA – South Sudan government has closed one lane of Juba’s only bridge for a period of not less than 45 days to allow for partial repair, a senior government official at the national road authority said.

Engineer Kenyatta Warille, the Executive Director of South Sudan roads authority, said the inbound lane requires more fixing and that traffic will be interrupted during the 45-day period.

“Tomorrow [Saturday] October 2nd, at 7 AM, we are going to work on rehabilitating old Juba bridges. Last April, we finished rehabilitating the inbound lane,” Warille said, according to the Juba-based Eye Radio.

“Now, we have agreed to bring the export from England and the constructors are ready to take up the work of rehabilitating the outbound lane, the lane leading from Juba to Gumbo,” he added

He further said that “Some of the damage panels will be changed and other light activities on the lane so some of them are going to get replaced as such that lane is going to be closed completely while the repairs are going on.”

In April 2020, Rhino Star Construction Company completed the rehabilitation of the bridge after parts of the super-structures holding the bridge could not hold heavy trucks.

Last year’s reconstruction work was estimated to have cost 4 million US dollars by the South Sudan Roads Authority.