The Loto Samasoni Mabey Bridge soon to be commissioned plays a crucial role in the traffic flow and will take take the traffic load once the reconstruction of the Lelata Bridge starts in 2020.
“This crossing will allow traffic to flow directly from our 4 lane Vaitele Street and the crossing will assist in distributing our traffic along our main roads and will significantly benefit our local people,” says Land Transportation Chief Executive Galumalemana Ta’atialeoitiiti A. Tutuvanu-Schwalger.
“Currently about 5o% of the construction works is completed,” she added noting the Loto Samoa project is a solid reflection of the ingenuity of Samoan graduates.
“This project is a huge injection to our local capacity by utilising our engineering graduates who were granted scholarships by Government to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, with the assistance of a senior volunteer engineer from Australia,” continued Galuemalemana
“In addition to this, a capacity building training was conducted by a Mabey Bridge Specialist for Local Contractors on the Installation of these Bridges.”
The construction phase commenced on the 24th April 2019 targeting completion by the end of July 2019.
The Loto Samasoni Mabey Bridge is similar to the Bailey bridge currently used at Salani and it is the largest of the five Mabey Bridges funded and handed over by Government of Australia to the Land Transport Authority on the 16 January 2018.
The two-lane bridge has a span (length) of 36.6 meters with a road-width of 7.35 meters, and a 1.5 meter foot-walk on the side (kindly find attached bridge drawing).
The finish bridge/road level is 10 meters above sea-level to allow for a 1 in 20 year flood event.
The superstructure is prefabricated and is currently being assembled on site. The bridge will be the fourth crossing along the Vaisigano River (along with the Vaisigano, Leone and Lelata bridges) therefore, improving the connectivity of traffic between the Eastern to Western sides of the island and vice versa.
As stated by the Prime Minister at the Ground breaking ceremony “the supply of these bridges came at a critical time as Samoa looks to improve our existing bridges and be prepared for emergencies should any bridge fail”.
Design and supervision of the project is done jointly by LTA and MWTI while construction is carried out by King Construction.
This project is funded by the Government of Australia through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) totalling to AUD$850,000.
(3)
