Bridge deteriorates

Motorists fear for their safety

THE deteriorating condition of a bridge on Taveuni has resulted in off-loading of bus passengers at one end of the crossing at Waibula.

Passengers travelling across this bridge are off-loaded at either side of the crossing as motorists fear for their safety.

Prakash Sami, operations manager of Taveuni Buses Pte Ltd, claimed the issue had been raised many times with Fiji Roads Authority.

“A contractor started working on it from March last year but there has been no improvements at all and the condition continues to get worse,” he said.

“Our passengers travelling towards Naqara from Lavena, Bouma and other villages up north need to get off at one end of the bridge, cross over to the other side and get on another bus to bring them to Naqara. The same is done for passengers travelling up towards the North from Naqara.”

Such method, Mr Sami said, had been adopted to avoid any disruptions to travel plans especially for the students.

“This is the only bridge for the villagers from Lavena, Bouma, Wai, Waitabu and Vurevure to travel to central area for shopping, school, board the ships and access government services. I have been writing to FRA for years but so far nothing has been done and the people living up north will be without bus services if this crossing collapses. The bridge is not safe and there are no signs indicating the dangers of crossing this Waibula bridge for our pedestrians and vehicle drivers,” he said.

In its response, the FRA revealed that temporary restoration works would be done on the damaged portion of the crossing.

“The temporary repair will be done within this week. Buses cannot cross because of the partially collapsed portion of culverts,” FRA said.

“This crossing is under an ongoing contract with A Khan Services to be replaced with a new crossing. Work has been delayed due to unpredictable river flow that has damaged initial foundation works.”