South Africa is planning to construct a new bridge over Tugela River at uMsinga. This is according to South Africa president Jacob Zuma on Saturday. The new bridge will help connect the Mashunka and Ngubo communities, which are separated by a 30 kilometers road distance.
Construction works will involve setting a structure over the river to assist residents cross the river to access Mandleni Clinic medical facility at Ngubo as well as the access road. Construction of the bridge will take up US$2.24m while the access road would consume up to US$2.7m. Funds for design and construction of the access road were to be provided by the Provincial transport department.
At the moment, the communities are using the Tugela Ferry to cross the river, but this is a congested single lane bridge. This is because of the large number of vehicles accessing the Tugela Ferry Central Business District.
The preliminary design for the bridge over Tugela River has been completed to pave way construction works. According to the president, construction of the road and bridge will create employment.
The new bridge will also be helpful since crossing Tugela River during floods is tricky, and have to use the road that is 3o kilometers long.
“Our people in rural areas deserve a better quality of life and through the implementation of the comprehensive rural development program, we are beginning to see a transformation of the rural landscape of our country and an improvement in the livelihoods of rural communities,” said Zuma.
