Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Kapompi Bridge in Kitwe collapses again

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Housing and Infrastructure Development Minister Ronald Chitotela inspecting the damage
Housing and Infrastructure Development Minister Ronald Chitotela inspecting the damage

THE Kapompi Bridge which joins Nkana East and Musonda compound in Kitwe City has collapsed barely a month after it was worked on.

The bridge collapsed this morning due to heavy rains being experienced in the area.

Last month, Kapombi bridge had collapsed and area member of Parliament Joseph Malanji arranged contractors who worked on it at a cost of over 300 thousand Kwacha.

ZANIS reports that a spot check at broadcast time , found motorists stranded at the site while pedestrians took their risk to cross the bridge which is on the verge of collapsing completely.

And Kitwe Mayor Christopher Kang’ombe who rushed to the scene said the council will immediately put a temporal foot bridge opposite the collapsed bridge to enable school going children and people that go for work to cross the stream.

Mr. Kang’ombe said the council has also engaged Avic International to finalize works on an alternative road using Copperbelt University Hostels access road for motorists.

He added that as a long term solution to the problem, a permanent bridge will be constructed after the rain season.

And Kitwe District Commissioner Binwell Mpundu who accompanied the Mayor to inspect the bridge said the concrete bridge which was put up recently should not have been put as it was adding more pressure on the pillars.

Mr. Mpundu said it was sad that the bridge had collapsed even after making attempts to resuscitate it a few weeks ago.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Loads of bridges having been collapsing and tarmac roads have washed away. This is all from the PF governments self-enriching culture of awarding contracts to ill suited people who are within their connections – no acumen or appropriate resources to do the work. Stalled ‘projects’ because the people awarded the contracts can squander the money and no one does anything meaningful about it. In fact, many a time, the same people are funded further to ‘complete’ the work. Dubious foreign agencies and Tuntemba companies connected to families and friends of the powers that be, are the order of the day.

  2. Kitwe mayor and town clerk please there is no single road in Kitwe town that we can point to be a good road. All roads need a very big face lift. My appeal to your offices is that let those awarded contracts to the roads come on site as early as possible. Not coming in September or October when the rains are about to start. Avoid politics this time around because the time is not with us especially your offices which are responsible for these works. Lastly my best suggestions for contractors to be on site is first April and I hope you have already awarded these works to contractors as at now.

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