RUBANDA — Residents in Rubanda District are demanding for heads of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) engineers assigned to repair a bridge over shoddy works.
According to Uganda Radio Network, UNRA announced the completion of the rehabilitation of Hamurwa Floating Bridge in Hamurwa Sub County in Rubanda district— a popular bridge along Kanungu-Rubanda that was carried away by massive floods during the recent heavy rains.
This website reported about the closure of this major road by security to allow rehabilitation.
UNRA issued a statement on the same, citing safety of the users before its engineers rushed to ‘repair’ the popular bridge.
But residents claim that work done by UNRA engineers is embarrassing and that they didn’t open the drainage to allow the water to flow.
They want UNRA engineers assigned to handle the bridge massively punished or sacked for failure to raise the bridge with stones and murrum to stop flooding.
Gideon Tumuhekyi, a Boda boda rider at Hamurwa stage, told reporters that they were surprised when UNRA only installed one culvert in a place that doesn’t flood and ignored the black spot.
Felix Bashekye, a resident of Muzirante Village in Sheyeba parish Hamurwa Sub County faults UNRA for doing shoddy work.
He wants UNRA to do a visible work on the bridge because of frequent flooding that paralyzes business.
Polly Muhangi, the Hamurwa Sub County LC 3 Chairman, says what angered them most is announcements by UNRA officials lack that they had completed rehabilitating the bridge yet there is still a pool of stagnant water.
He told local media that even the drainage channel that was worked on, was poorly done.
According to Muhangi, the current repairs will not stop flooding of the bridge at all.
Muhangi says that there used to be a ban of motor vehicles carrying more than five tons crossing the bridge as a way of increasing its lifespan but it was abolished by UNRA after taking it over, a claim engineers have trashed.
Augustine Kabanda, the UNRA Engineer in charge of Kabale Station says there is no reason for worry because UNRA used first class Murrum to fill the bridge.
