May 28, 2021
Francis F.M.Harding
As Charles Barkley once said: “I truly believe that building bridges, not building walls and not giving into fear, will make our communities…”
Every change comes with new challenges. This is a story about change in the land. Sierra Leone is embracing its largest ever infrastructure project. The Lungi Bridge will connect the capital Freetown with the Port Loko district. This dream has been alive for over decades in this country. The challenge for traversing sea ranger and Cross Rivers is a dialogue and communion between man and nature.
The bridge is an 8 kilometer span from abutment to abutment; this is where the bridge start living the ground and where it ends on the ground. A six lane three in each direction and a provision for the future to have light rails to take you to the airport or across Lungi connecting the capital Freetown with Port Loko district that host the International airport. The cost of the bridge is $1.2 billion.
The population of Freetown by then was 1,000 people; today Freetown has a population about 1,232,670 residents with rapid population growth causing transportation strains. Let’s compare the time that we taking to get to the Lungi International Airport by speedboat is 15/20 minutes and bigger boats and ferries 35/40 minutes. For now there is only one ferry that is plying the from Freetown Targreen and the time scheduled are Mondays to Fridays 8am from Lungi, 11 am from Freetown, 2pm from Lungi, 4pm from Freetown, 6pm from Lungi and Saturdays and Sundays 8am from Freetown, 11am from Lungi, 2pm from Lungi, 2pm from Freetown, 4pm from Lungi, 6pm from Freetown and 8pm from Lungi.
The construction bridge is bound to cut the time from Freetown to Port Loko which hosts the international airport. The seven hundred million dollar bridge is China biggest project in Sierra Leone yet and it part of wider and larger two hundred kilo meter road network that include access roads on both side of the bank.
The government has taken the bold step in launching the ambitious Lungi Bridge project to link Lungi with the Freetown mainland. African countries are now moving into the digital economy and it is better for Sierra Leone to have the Lungi Bridge to connect any major economic zones so this country will deliver on its ambitions as the Lungi Bridge will be transformational because it is important to open up a country.
As a country we should be committed to better the lives of ourselves and creating the eco-system that will invite investments for generations yet unborn. I believe that the investment will bring economic chain with an attachment that could bring job opportunities, industry and technology development. For every change comes with new challenges. Definitely, a lot of challenges will come; challenges affect the communities’ way of life, quality of life, livelihoods, etc. Project components can result in land take and resettlement. I hope that the project would take into cognizance community engagement, which is not an event with a distinct start and end; rather it should be a continuous process right throughout the project’s lifecycle.
We all knew that Port Loko is one of the poorest districts in the country with an estimated population of 614,000. The main economic activity apart from the airport is subsistence farming, fishing, commerce and animal husbandry with largely untapped mineral potential for iron ore and bauxite. There is good potential for advancement of agriculture with vast stretches of boli and mangrove ecologies. The District however remains abjectly poor with a poverty rate of 60%. The Lung Bridge will see an exponential growth in intra-trade in Sierra Leone.
The bridge will be constructed off balance sheet. This mean the government would not incur any debt for the construction of the Lungi Bridge as the bridge will pay for itself. The bridge will connect two major economic zones of the country. I believe the approach and methodology of the Lungi Bridge meet international standards. The government is working on economic corridor initiative which includes other sectors and other ministries and departments. For example like Sea Port, Lungi Bridge, Terminal Port, Energy Generation, Health and rail system. We all know that the rails were removed in the 70s, as for us we will be happy if we would have the rail system back. Let put on the economic lens or sustainable development lens. The development on the South from the Airport, Airport Terminal on the East, it would transition from South of the development section straight into government Wharf, 60 acre of lands and would inter link with the Bia Bureh road, and the one that go to the West will tie with the beach road.
Where I have confidence before is the study of the bridge, World Bank study was conducted in 2010, Sierra Leone Institute of Engineers in 2011, China Road and Bridge Corporation 2013 and the most recently before HEC a Chinese company did a study 2016.These studies have been done by out siders. Sierra Leone has never done her own studies. Three cheers for the president and the chairperson for the infrastructure development at State House for OPII Lungi Bridge feasibility studies 2019.
This time the country put together local team with two experts from other Africa countries. The study was conducted in four months with support from the ministry of Finance; I want to say thanks to the outgoing hard work and erudite speaker Minister of Finance Hon. Jacob Jusu Saffa. The benefit that Sierra Leoneans will gain from the Lungi Bridge is that the project underpins the principle of integrated infrastructural development, that jobs creation, youth employment, skills development and total economic development by maximizing the impact of the bridge.
The bridge will be an anchor project, the water front development project by government Wharf which include a marine, shopping Centre, houses, hotels and entertainment centers, a new city at Lungi and new city on the Freetown side, free trade zone, new airport terminal at Lungi, a new tourist hub at Lungi, and a new convention Centre at Lungi this would be grant. What is the fundamental principle guiding the construction of the Lungi Bridge.
The Lungi Bridge would last for 120 years as a life span. It would be 60 meters high to allow ship to go under the bridge which will not disrupt any ship movement. On would like to ask about the economic impact of the bridge.
In 25 years government and the people of Sierra Leone would save $3.767 billion and it able to create 5,350 jobs per years, the construction period is projected between four to five years. It is projected that the bridge will contribute to decongesting Freetown and even reduce the sanitation constraints.
The bridge will add to the economy $6.67 billion as economic benefit. I want to thank the astute, pragmatic and resourceful president of the republic of Sierra Leone, President Julius Maada Bio: Sierra Leone fountain of honour. I believe he has exhibited true leadership to rebrand Sierra Leone in the international scene. I am not saying president Bio is the only good president of Sierra Leone but let’s give honor to whom honor is due and that accolade is bestowed to no less a person but a dynamic president in the twenty first century. The bridge will start from the Central Business District of Government Wharf. The Lungi Bridge is an old dream if it come through as it has a demand from the population over decades for the movement of people and trade, and it would allow people to travel by day and night and economic emergency. Critics will be flounder in shame when the Lungi Bridge project will commence either June or July of this year. The lesson I have learnt in Sierra Leone politic is criticism of the seating president as not able to do this and that.