Sayikope Bridge's Disaster: Central Tongu DCE Creates Police Barrier To Prevent Heavy-Duty Trucks To Ply Mepe-Dadome Aklakpa River Metal Bridge
According to the residents, they were full of praise to the DCE for using his technical know how and Building Technology and Quantity Survey skill to order for an immediate creation of a police barrier on the road located at Mafi-Adidome connecting Mepe-Dadome to Juapong.
Freeman Koryekpor 
RESIDENTS of Mafi, Battor and Mepe Traditional Areas in the Volta Region have lauded the Central Tongu District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Thomas Moore Zonyrah for demonstrating his good leadership to safeguard lives and properties.
According to the residents, they were full of praise to the DCE for using his technical know how and Building Technology and Quantity Survey skill to order for an immediate creation of a police barrier on the road located at Mafi-Adidome connecting Mepe-Dadome to Juapong.
These human centered measures being taken by the humble and hardworking DCE, the residents noted was aimed at preventing the heavy-duty trucks or trailers to ply the road from Mafi-Adidome connecting Mepe-Dadome to Juapong.
This was also aimed at safeguarding a steel bridge on Aklakpa River located at Mepe-Dadome area, crucial for connecting the North Tongu town of Juapong, to the Central Tongu capital town, Adidome.
According to the DCE who spoke in an interview with Soireenews.com, he has taken these proactive measures to create an emergency police barrier to check the level of the loads of the vehicles before allowing the drivers to ply the road from Mafi-Adidome through Mepe-Dadome to Juapong.
Mr Moore stated that the collapsed of the twenty-six (26) year-old Aklakpanu-Sayikope steel bridge in the North Tongu District, along Juapong-Adidome road under the weight of a heavy-duty truck has been a wake up call to the local authorities hence his decision to create such a police barrier.
He stated that they were aware of the thorough assessments being conducted on the metal bridges on the Aklakpanu River at Sayikope and Dadome respectively by the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) before the trailer, fully loaded with salt believed to be over the recommended maximum weight of 25 tonnes, was crossing the bridge spanning over the Aklakpa River late in the night on Thursday (January 25) when the structure crumbled.
"It is not that the local authorities and state regulators were not doing anything on the bridge at Sayikope before it has collapsed, but we have done assessments to check the safety standard of the bridge and that there was a report on it. We are aware they Ghana High ways has done assessments on the Sayikope bridge it has collapsed.
"But l would like assured the residents that per information available to me, the metal bridge on Aklakpa River at Mepe Dadome, as we speak now its safety condition is not bad but we will not allow those heavy-duty trucks or trailers to ply that stretch of the road," the DCE stressed.
The DCE used the opportunity to disclose that the management of the Ghana Highways Authority has given assurance to the local authorities that it would soon start reconstruction of the collapsed steel bridge at Saikope-Mepe, in the North Tongu District, along Juapong-Adidome road.
It would be recalled that Aklakpanu-Sayikope steel bridge on the Mafi Adidome-Juapong main road in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region has collapsed.
The bridge went down around 10.30 pm on Thursday, 25th January 2024, with a man diesel cargo truck with registration number GR 7325-17.
The truck was carrying some six hundred (600) bags of twenty-five (25) kilograms of salt from Sege-Ada in the Ada West District of the Greater Accra Region and headed for Kpassa in the Nkwanta North District of the Oti Region.
The bridge, about sixty (60) to seventy (70) metres in length, was constructed in 1998 by Kasap Construction Company Limited. It is one of the two (2) steel bridges in addition to one (1) concrete one linking several communities between Adidome in Central Tongu and Juapong in the North Tongu District. It has yet to see any major renovation or maintenance work since its construction twenty-six (26) years ago.
The bridge was one of the facilities severely hit by last year’s spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams, worsening its structural integrity. Residents told our news team that alarms had been raised about the weak state of the bridge for some time now, but such concerns were flatly ignored by the road authorities concerned.
In October last year, notices were put up at both ends of the bridge, alerting pedestrians and other road users not only about the deteriorating state of the facility but also its maximum load of twenty-five (25) tonnes it could take.
The driver of the truck, Mr. Enoch Wakpar Nfojuni, told our news team that he and the driver mate were the only two (2) occupants of the vehicle with no casualties recorded. According to him, when they got to the middle part of the steel portion of the bridge, it suddenly caved in, largely submerging the truck and getting them trapped in the front compartment of the vehicle.
He lauded the efforts of the youth of the two (2) sister communities of Sayikope and Aklakpanu, saying it took the efforts and benevolence of their residents to urgently come to their rescue.
Mr. Enoch Nfojuni said he has been using this route for the past one (1) year, explaining that the poor nature of the Akatsi-Wute-Ho and the other link roads has compelled him to be using this route which according to him is also shorter.
However, since the collapsed of the bridge, the market women, pedestrians, and other motorists from both directions of the road--Mepe and Mafi now were ferried across the stream which is one of the tributaries of the Lake Volta.
The Assembly Member for the Dadome Electoral Area, Hon. Christian Ameglah, described the incident as a disaster, saying the signs of the imminent collapse of the bridge were written on the walls as far back as two (2) years ago, accusing the authorities of doing nothing about it.
His assertion was corroborated by a teacher at the St. Anthony R.C. Basic School, Husikope, Mr. Anthony Gligbe who argued that the situation would have been avoided if the needful was done.
Some residents of the area also felt that the concrete platforms holding the steel portions of the bridge from both ends were either poorly constructed or not well thought through.
The Assembly Member for the Mepe Electoral Area, Hon. Amos Borlor Ahorsu, bemoaned the lack of maintenance culture that is continuously creeping into the fabric of Ghanaian society.
He called on the government and those put at the helm of affairs, to be honest and truthful in the discharge of their responsibilities to the state.
The collapse of this strategic facility means motorists from either Adidome to Juapong or vice versa would have to reroute their trips through Titikope, Dadome, and other poor link roads in the enclave to do their businesses or get to their destinations.
About ninety (90) school children of the St. Anthony R. C Basic School at Husikope who live in some four communities on the Adidome end, including Masape, Sayikope, Anekpo, and parts of Tsetsekpo, have now used canoes across the stream to school
