Is Kano’s Tamburawa Bridge falling down?

Tamburawa Bridge is located in Tamburawa village in Dawakin Kudu local government area of Kano State, about 15 kilometers away from Kano city. The bridge was constructed by Borini Prono Construction Company some years ago and it is one of the many bridges along Kano-Kaduna expressway, accommodating traffic going in and out of the ancient city. However, this important conduit is being threatened by erosion caused by local sand excavators plying their trade around it. Even though government has banned excavation around the bridge, the excavators have already caused considerable damage to the bridge.
Daily Trust observed that the bridge is indeed shaky, even as the river which runs under has washed away major portions of the structure, exposing virtually all the sunken concrete pillars, with metal bars used for support. There are also two major cracks on one lane of the bridge, even as further observation revealed that erosion has also destroyed the edge of the bridge. Users spoken to are alarmed, and of the opinion that if urgent action is not taken, a catastrophe might follow.
A section of motorists who spoke to Daily Trust expressed worry and called on the government to urgently address the problem. Habibu Musa Kura, a commercial driver, said: “I’ve noticed the condition of the bridge for some time now, about three months ago and it’s worsening,” he said. “If the bridge collapses, lives will be lost, and it will affect the economy of the entire country, Kano being the economic nerve centre of the North.”
Another motorist, Auwal Muhammad, said: “Government should not take this issue lightly because it concerns safety, and the bridge is a very important link between Kano and Abuja the nation’s capital.” He appealed to Kano State governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to draw the attention of the federal government to the bridge so that necessary action would be taken.
Aminu Sanusi is a fisherman, and he plies his trade under the bridge. He told Daily Trust that the bridge has been ‘shaky’ for some months, even though the sand excavators have vacated the site for about a year now. He said the condition of the bridge had probably deteriorated because of the heavy rainfall the state witnessed last year.
However, a civil engineer and lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at Kano State Polytechnic, Engineer Suraj Sa’id, said although ordinarily people will be worried about the present condition of the bridge where its piles and the pile caps were exposed, from a professional point of view only the engineers that constructed the bridge can ascertain whether it is on the verge of collapse or not.
Sa’id said: “Exposing the piles and the piles cap of a bridge to the surface does not mean the bridge will collapse. Sometimes piles can be drilled 30 meters deep into the earth, depending on the nature of the site. It could be possible that only 1/10 per cent of the bridge’s piles are exposed, as piles are drilled like boreholes, always supported with concrete in order to make it stronger.”
Sa’id also said the whole issue was subject to investigation, recalling that some years back, a joint inspection was carried out on the bridge by federal and state government teams. He suggested that similar inspection should also be conducted again to ascertain the condition of the bridge. He also said government should introduce strict measures that will ban completely the activities of sand excavators around the bridge.
Sa’id also told Daily Trust that the problems associated with construction are dynamic. “You can conduct an inspection and ascertain the condition of a building and after some days the status may change due to some reasons. So, the federal government should as a matter of urgency invite the engineers that constructed the bridge to conduct inspection and come up with recommendations and government should immediately implement the recommendations to forestall calamity,” he concluded.
Checks at the office of the Controller Works, Federal Ministry of Works in Kano, revealed that a team of engineers from the ministry had inspected the bridge on Thursday. Although the Controller Works was unable to comment, a source hinted at efforts being made by the federal government to address the problem. The source, who pleaded for anonymity, said Borini Prono, the company that built the bridge, had sent one of its engineers who participated in the construction to inspect the bridge. “We spent hours at the site and I’m sure they will soon present their report to the ministry for further, necessary action,” he said.
Another commercial driver, Bello Yakubu Dogon-Driver, said: “It will be better for the work to be done before the rainy season begins in earnest, because the river’s flow will not allow the engineers to work comfortably.”