Motorists travelling from Louis Trichardt to Thohoyandou every day will soon be able to make use of the newly rebuilt bridge across the Lutananda river. This comes after the Vhembe District Municipality announced this week that building on the Lutanandwa Bridge has been completed.

The Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport appointed Pele Kaofela Construction on April 21 this year to fix the bridge.

The Lutanandwa Bridge (Bridge No 1288 on road P98/1) that links Louis Trichardt and Thohoyandou collapsed two years ago, forcing motorists to use a detour, which added an extra 24 kilometres to their journey. This also resulted in heavy traffic volumes through the Levubu farm area, which caused the road there to deteriorate.

Farmers also complained that this made it difficult for them to transport their produce around the area as the increased traffic threatened the lives of tractor drivers in the area.

"The bridge will once again contribute to the economic activities in the Vhembe District by linking the villages and towns and reducing travelled distances among business communities. The detour which motorists are currently using is putting farmers in danger as motorists drive at high speeds along the detour. All this will soon be a thing of the past," said Mr Moses Shibambu, Vhembe District Municipality´s media liaison officer. He added that the road would reduce traffic congestion along the Elim road and that it would be opened before Christmas.

According to Shibambu, the bridge was built at a cost of R28 million.

The construction of the bridge made provision for the employment of local labourers, and some 62 community members were employed at the project. Shibambu thanked and praised motorists who had been very patient and cooperative during the process.

Although it took long that people expected to fix the bridge, motorists says opening of the bridge will be a relief of stressful long distance they were forced to travel along the detour.