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Ethiopia: Awash Bridge Project Attracts Little Interest
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Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
19 February 2008
Posted to the web 19 February 2008
Issayas Mekuria
Another overweight truck bearing a transformer is due to follow this creeping vehicle's path soon
With a single day remaining before the expression of interest initation issued by the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) closed on February 15, only two bidders bought tender documents for the construction of an alternative river overpass for the Awash Bridge.
The only link to the Port of Djibouti along the paved road located to the east of the capital where most of the country's imports and exports pass, bore the load of a huge transformer four times heavier than its capacity three weeks ago.
According to Samson Wondimu, public relations head at ERA, it has been decided that bridges that are on the main trunk roads of the country should have contingency routes.
"The back-up planned for Awash Bridge is part of this decision," he told Fortune.
The Authority publicised the expression of interest for the rehabilitation of the existing Awash River Bridge and design and construction of a new alternative bridge on January 4, 2008. The notice published in The Ethiopian Herald states that the expression of interest must be delivered to the Authority at or before February 18, 2008, 10:30PM.
"I do not anticipate that other companies would come to buy the tender documents anymore," a road construction engineer told Fortune. "I expect the Authority to extend the deadline."
Located 227Km east of Addis Abeba, the 40-year-old Awash Bridge has been used as the lone outlet of the country to the Port of Djibouti and prior to that to the Port of Assab in Eritrea. A transformer weighing 213tns recently crossed the 136m bridge, which has a carrying capacity of only 50tns.
The transformer was needed for the Gilgel Gibe II project, which the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) has contracted to Salini Custruttori SpA to undertake on the Gibe River, in the Oromia Regional State.
The Spanish, CYMI-SOCOIN that EEPCo hired to transport the first transformer has planned to move another 217tns machine on this bridge soon for the same project.
Although there were fears that the bridge would rupture and eventually collapse, it only stretched by 20mm, according to an assessment by Nigussie Tebeje (emeritus professor).
The bridge is therefore expected contract back to its original state.
According to a civil engineer, overload bridges potentially face three types of deformations.
The first, affecting the plasticity index, causes a brief but unnoticeable stretch and returns to the normal position afterwards. A breach of the elasticity index produces a noticeable inversion but with a return to the previous state. The third and worst scenario, according to the expert, occurs when the yield limit is surpassed resulting in rupture and no return to the original condition.
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The civil engineer told Fortune he has heard that the Awash Bridge expansion was an example of violating the plasticity index.
"It is because we want to get ready in advance if anything bad happens that we decided to construct an alternative bridge," Samson told Fortune.
ERA also has floated a tender to hire a consultant engineer that supervises the construction of the alternative bridge.
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