Frustration after Kumbo-Ndop road splits

The section of road between Kumbo and Ndop, often referred to as “mile 27 Ndop,” has split.

Tatah, a truck driver who frequently travels the Kumbo-Ndop road, said, “The road had been showing warning signs, but the authorities ignored them as usual.”

The locals are now worried about their safety since the road was cut off.

Mama Po lamented saying, “our kids who used to walk across the bridge to get to school can’t go to school anymore. We want the authorities to sit up because their neglect is too much.”

It’s been weeks, and heavy-duty haulers are still waiting for steps to be implemented so that traffic may resume along that road.

They have been keeping track of the food they have lost due to spoilage.

“I have to pay 1000frs for each bag of Irish potatoes to be transported on the other side by these young men before I will struggle to get it to the next point at Bamali, where the deviation was swept away, and repeat the same process of paying loaders; it’s so tedious,” a truck driver told MMI.

Contractors exposed. 

The recent cutting has exposed the contractors’ subpar work on the ring road’s Ndop to Kumbo section. It appears from the tar’s evident cracking around Mile 27 that the water current wasn’t taken into account during research, leading to a subpar outcome.

Deep potholes are appearing at random intervals throughout the once-paved stretch of road. A traveller named Njitafon once told MMI that “if you scratch the tar with your finger, you will see the earth.”

No work has been done to fix the section of the deviation that washed away on September 3. Not even the emergency repairs carried out nearby helped.

The contractor was spotted at the construction site, but he no longer appears to be there.

The Ministry of Public Works gave International Earth Links the contract to build a bridge at Bamali in 2020, but little has been accomplished since then. Work has not progressed beyond the ground floor yet.

The local community already faces hardships, and the second road cut would simply make things worse. Locals are frightened that the road will soon keep them prisoner, and the exact date of the occurrence is unknown but is said to have occurred about two weeks ago.