Bridge safety

Satish Nakched, Suva

Last week, I was travelling along the Kings Road from Nasinu side and was going towards Suva with the intention to make a right turn into Cunningham Road at the four miles bridge.

The green right turn arrow at the traffic lights was very quick to change colour and only allowed about three vehicles to manoeuvre at a time. It was a peak period. I spent a considerable amount of time sitting on the extreme right lane waiting for my change to go across.

There were two other lanes on my side that was meant for traffic travelling towards the city.

While I caught in the jam I had a nasty experience. I felt the bridge vibrating vigorously especially when the loaded heavy vehicles and the buses passed it.

This bridge is about a hundred feet in length and has a total of five lanes, supported with three large pillars over the Samabula River.

The vibration was strong enough and I believe that it could easily register at least 5 magnitude on the Richter scale. The vibrations are even more amplified when a heavy vehicle brakes or stops.

Engineers actually design all structures to flex and bend rather than fracture and shatter for safety reasons.

However, as a lay person I rate this as a physical hazard because the memory of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in the Italian City of Genoa last month is still very fresh in the minds of the people. This is a concern and the Fiji Roads Authority needs to conduct a risk assessment to determine the condition and the safety aspect of the structure.

I believe that this should be done for public safety as a proactive measure and the people advised of the findings.