Adenta-Madina footbridge up to international standards – Engineer

Graphic.com.gh May - 03 - 2019 , 09:57

First Sky Limited, the contractor of one of the footbridges on the Adenta portion of the N4 Highway says the bridge is up to international standards.

Reacting to concerns from some sections of the public concerning the length and nature of the access ramps on the bridge, the Projects Manager of First Sky Limited, Ernest Hammond, explained that the “winding” nature of the footbridge was because of space constraint.

Speaking on radio on Accra-based Citi FM Friday morning, Mr Hammond said, the initial plan of the footbridge was disability unfriendly and that, the new design was aimed at making the footbridge accessible to all.

“The original design as I am aware of has stairs which was not disabled friendly. What we have done is more disabled friendly; meaning it is a ramp rather than stairs and it’s easier to use for everybody,” he explained.

“The constraint we tried to overcome was, we want to make this ramp accessible to all; handicapped people and people who might not have the energy to go over a ramp that is very steep. We tried to make this as gentle as possible… This is the best design for the situation on the ground,” he explained further.

“What we need to know is that with regards to the length of the bridge, this is internationally accepted and you can find similar structures all over the world. Some of them [are] actually longer. There are some bridges in the UK, China, and Dubai which are considerably longer than what we have constructed,” he added.

Recall

Series of highway knock-downs on the Adentan stretch of the busy road, resulted in the death of some pedestrians in recent times, leading to a spontaneous reaction by irate youth in the area who resorted to a number of demonstrations including the blockage of the highway and burning of tyres to draw attention of the government to their plight.

The government eventually re-awarded the contract on the footbridges to new contractors.