By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Freetown City council last Friday started work to fix the sewage system at the King Jimmy Bridge.
Sewage waste has been oozing from the bridge for a long time, causing discomfort to people who make a living within the vicinity.
Work on the faulty sewage system comes exactly two weeks since Politico published an article on it, revealing longstanding disagreement between the contractor who built the bridge and the city council, who accused each of responsibility for the prolongation of the problem.
The stench of the sewage waste has been a serious inconvenience for the main referral hospital in Freetown – Connaught, which is situated just 50 meters away.
Commuters and people who work in nearby offices also share in the discomfort.
The King Jimmy Bridge, located at Wallace Johnson Street, links central Freetown to the rest of the central business district, neighboring places like the iconic Big Market, the National Civil Registration Authority, the newly constructed City Hall, NASSIT, Government Warf, and Maritime Administration.
The bridge which was a colonial infrastructure, collapsed in 2014, killing at least six people who lived in makeshift structures under the bridge. The reconstruction was done by Beton Villa, a construction firm under Gento Group of Companies.
Since the completion of the bridge, the sewage system of the area which runs under the bridge has been broken.
In a statement from the City Council, it recognized the inconvenience the stench of the sewage waste on the people running businesses and working in offices in the area.
“Over the last 5 years, residents who live and work around the King Jimmy environs, and those that regularly travel through the route, have been regularly inconvenienced by the overflow of sewage. The overflow was caused by the destruction of sewage lines after the bridge fell,” the statement reads, adding: “The work that FCC is undertaking involves constructing new sewage lines to put a permanent end to the problem.”
Traffic along the route is expected to be disrupted because of the work, because the problem is located at the center of the bridge, the Council said.
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