Mr Alexander Ayattah, Northern Regional Manager of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has called for immediate assessment and maintenance of the Yapei Bridge to avert any calamity.

He said the 240-meter length bridge over the White Volta Lake was the only convenient route that links the north to the south of the country as well as linking Ghana with its neighboring countries including Burkina Faso.

Mr Ayattah told the Ghana News Agency after he inspected temporal emergency repair works, which included filling of the potholes and cracks on the bridge at the weekend at Yapei as part of short term measures.

Until the emergency repairs, there have been a growing public concern and several media reports regarding the expansion and dipping of the concrete works of the old age bridge.

It took the China .J. Cooperation, a Chinese construction firm, about six hours to complete the repair works which led to the temporal closure of the bridge for several hours.

Mr Ayattah said considering the importance and the contribution of the facility to the nation’s socio-economic development, there was the need to find a permanent solution to its deterioration.

Mr Augustin Kuuire, Northern Regional Maintenance Manager of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), explained that his outfit was alerted by the officials of the NRSC and some section of the media about the deteriorating nature of the concrete works of the bridge.

He said a report was quickly sent to Accra hence the need for the temporal repairs at the site and expressed the hope that everything would be done to ensure that the bridge did not deteriorate further.

Mr Kuure said a team of officers at the Bridge Engineering Inspectorate of the GHA would be at bridge site on Monday to assess its status and make the necessary recommendations.