MBARARA: Katete Bridge collapses, Destroys two vehicles

Mbarara | RedPepper Digital – There was panic in Mbarara City council leaders after some pillars at Katete main bridge collapsed and destroyed two vehicles in the accident.

This incident occurred on Thursday afternoon on Katete road one of the busiest road in Mbarara Town on the main bridge of R. Rwizi that connects Kate town Mbarara town,

Witness revealed that a Lorry allegedly knocked one of the pillars that had been constructed recently to prevent big and heavy trucks from using this bridge.

Few months ago Mbarara City Council spent about UGX24.8m to construct pillars along the bridge that would stop heavy and tall trucks not to pass on this bridge.

That the bridge is temporally so it should only be used for small vehicles. On Thursday this week, a heavy Lorry truck knocked one of the pillars down, the same Lorry was involved in the same accident with a Toyota Premio car was also destroyed by the pillar.

According to the sources, it is said that the contractor did shoddy work on these pillars, and did not meet the requirements of the bridge.

The contractor, MUMA construction company, was awarded to construct these pillars at a cost of 24.8m but sources say he did a shoddy work that has resulted into collapsing of some of the pillars.

Katete bridge is one of the areas which has created many questions unanswered in Mbarara where by it is alleged that there was the misuse of money for repairing this bridge.

It has been learnt that Mbarara City Council released about 105, 3000,000 to repair this bridge not for pillars but it is alleged that the work that was done did not meet value for money.

Unsolicited reports revealed that there was connivance between some Mbarara City Council Leadership and contractors in contract awards so that is why there is a lot of shoddy works on this bridge.

According to the sources, billions of money have occasionally been spent on this bridge but it has never been permanently worked on.

According to Happy Richard, the Driver of the Lorry said that he has always been using this road but this time around it seems these pillars have already been losing since there was shoddy work done on it, and that’s why he has ended up knocking upside.

He said that when he was driving he realised that something must have nocked his vehicle and he immediately jumped out of the vehicle with his friends as the pillar was falling on his vehicle.

Richard Mugisha the Mbarara City Town Clerk told journalists that its a loss over the incident of Katete Bridge that affects the City council revenue.

“We shall have to assess the financial impact to see what is needed to replace the pillars or may be the owner of the vehicle and some investigations will be carried out to see who is responsible so that the one who is responsible meets the loss” said Mugisha.

He added that this bridge was built to carry the weight of 5 to 6 tons, that the vehicle slightly above a canter ór those built beyond a certain height are not supposed to go through this bridge. He said that as Mbarara City has no capacity to do a permanent bridge that will carry all categories of vehicles. That Central Government must intervene and support the construction of a permanent bridge.