Liberia: Deep Depression on Janapita Bridge Triggers Truck and Taxi Accidents on Ganta Highway in Bong County

The danger became painfully clear last night when a truck and a taxi were reportedly involved in separate accidents after encountering the damaged section. Both vehicles reportedly somersaulted off the roadway and landed in the bush beside the bridge. Photo credit. Journalist Exodus Weah

BONG COUNTY – A deep cut has opened in the middle of Janapita Bridge on the Ganta Highway, and motorists say it is turning an ordinary crossing into a gamble with their lives. The bridge, which has carried traffic between Bong County and the Ganta commercial hub for decades, now shows a serious depression in the road surface along with visible cracks on the upper deck and on the underside of the structure.

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***By Selma Lomax, selma.lomax@frontpageafricaonline.com ***

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The danger became painfully clear last night when a truck and a taxi were reportedly involved in separate accidents after encountering the damaged section. Both vehicles reportedly somersaulted off the roadway and landed in the bush beside the bridge. Details about the condition of those on board were not immediately available at the time of writing, and no official account of the incidents has yet been made public.

That two vehicles came to grief at the same spot on the same night suggests the problem lies with the road and not only with the drivers. A motorist approaching the bridge in darkness may not see the depression until the vehicle is already upon it, and at speed a sudden dip in the surface can pull a steering wheel out of a driver’s hands. A heavily loaded truck has little chance of recovering once its weight shifts, and a passenger taxi packed with travelers is just as vulnerable when the road drops away without warning.

Motorists traveling to or from Ganta are being urged to approach Janapita Bridge with extreme caution and to slow down until the damaged section has been properly addressed. Drivers are advised to be especially careful at night and in wet weather, when the depression is harder to see and the surface is less forgiving. The message from those who use the road daily is simple: no journey is worth a life, and a few extra minutes spent crossing slowly could prevent a tragedy.

The bridge is far from new. It was built in the 1970s under a World Bank-funded road infrastructure project, part of a wave of investment that opened up Liberia’s interior and linked farming communities and trading towns to the wider economy. For roughly half a century it has quietly carried whatever the highway sent its way, from passenger taxis and buses to commercial trucks and private cars, at volumes and weights its designers could hardly have imagined.

Motorists traveling to or from Ganta are being urged to approach Janapita Bridge with extreme caution and to slow down until the damaged section has been properly addressed. Drivers are advised to be especially careful at night and in wet weather, when the depression is harder to see and the surface is less forgiving. Photo credit: Journalist Exodus Weah

Age alone does not make a bridge unsafe, but structures of that era depend on regular inspection, maintenance and timely repair. The cracks now visible on both the top and underside of Janapita Bridge suggest the damage has been developing for some time, and cracking on the structure itself is often a sign that engineers need to look beyond the road surface. Only a professional assessment can say whether the problem is confined to the deck or reaches into the supporting structure below, and until that assessment is made no one can say with confidence how much more the bridge can bear.

The stakes reach well beyond the accident site. The Ganta Highway is one of the busiest arteries in the interior, moving people, goods and produce between Monrovia, Bong County and the border trade with Guinea. Traders depend on it to reach markets, students and patients depend on it to reach schools and clinics, and families depend on it to visit relatives. If the bridge were to fail or be closed suddenly, trade could be delayed or cut off, ambulances and rescue teams could be slowed, and communities on both sides could find themselves stranded.

For that reason residents and motorists are looking to the relevant authorities, including the Ministry of Public Works and county officials, for a swift response. At the very least they want clear warning signs, barriers or markers placed before the damaged section together with a temporary speed restriction so that drivers are alerted before they reach the danger. Beyond that they want engineers sent to examine the cracks and determine whether the bridge is safe for heavy loads, followed by prompt repair of the depression and any deeper structural work the assessment recommends.

Many also want a lasting change in how such infrastructure is looked after. Aging bridges and roads need scheduled inspection so that small defects are caught while they are still cheap to fix and before they cause crashes, and the events at Janapita show what can happen when that attention comes too late. Road users argue that the cost of routine maintenance is small next to the cost of lives lost, vehicles destroyed and trade disrupted.

For now the burden falls on drivers who have no alternative but to cross. Two vehicles left the road in a single night, and the warning signs are plain for anyone to see in the form of a deep depression in the deck, cracks above and below, and a bridge that has served the Ganta Highway for about fifty years. Until the authorities act, motorists are asked to slow down, stay alert and treat every crossing of Janapita Bridge with the seriousness it now demands.