By Stephen Kalema
Uganda National Roads of Authority (UNRA) has set aside seven days to light up the recently commissioned Source of the Nile Bridge.
The night illumination, which is aimed at enhancing tourism will start on Thursday, October 30.
This exercise, according to Allan Ssempebwa, a UNRA publicist, will among others ‘provide an opportunity for visitors to shoot breathtaking and memorable pictures of the bridge at night’.
However members of the public have been also advised by the Authority to use the available designated safe areas provided at either side of the bridge to take pictures and videos of the iconic bridge, Ssempebwa says in a statement.
“Taking pictures along the carriageway/on the bridge does not only obstruct traffic but may also lead to accidents due to the high design speed along the bridge,” he said.
The bridge has several dozen LED bulbs at the base of the cables which can be programed to provide various color patterns for a given event, according to David Luyimbazi, the bridge’s designer.
The Source of the Nile Bridge was commissioned by President Museveni on October 17.
Also known as the The New Jinja Bridge, the latest infrastructural marvel is 525 metres long and is the second of its kind in East Africa, 155 metres behind Tanzania’s 680m-long Kigamboni Bridge which commissioned in 2016.
In Africa, the Source of the Nile Bridge is the fifth longest cable-stayed bridge behind Egypt’s Suez Canal Bridge (3,900m), Lekki Ikoyi Bridge in Nigeria (1,360m), Mohammed VI Bridge in Morocco (950m) and Tanzania’s Kigamboni.
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