A survey recently conducted on the Juba-Nimule highway revealed that over half of trucks and trailers using the road are overloaded and risk destroying it and the bridges it in a short time.
The Juba-Nimule road pavement was built for a limit weight of 56 tons and the bridges should not take over 45 tons.Surveyors found some trucks coming from Kenya and Uganda with loads of 90 tons.
A group from the National Ministry of Road and Bridges together with JICA, Japan International Cooperation Agency, today were conducting the same survey on the Gudele road.
Three heavy tippers trucks filled with sand were found with an overload not recommended for that road.
Janet Kayuku Christopher, Inspector for Highways on attachment with ABMC, told CRN that during their survey at the Juba-Nimule road many trucks have loads between 70 and 90 tons, way beyond what the bridges can take.
She said the trucks are going to destroy the road right from the border up to Juba in no time if measures are not taken.
Long Chantha, a civil engineer working with JICA, explained that South Sudan should make regulations and laws on load limits for vehicles which do not exist.
He said because there are no laws traders load their trucks and trailers as much as they can and that can easily damage the road and bridges.
The survey uses a sophisticated machine called Axle Load Meter that records the details of the number of axles a truck has, its speed and weight one second after it passes over the equipment.