06.04.2015
The President of Gabon visits the site of the project Port Gentil - Omboué
With the erection of the construction site camps and the completion of the first auxiliary bridges, the new road leading from Port Gentil to Omboué is increasingly taking shape. On 4 April, 2015 the President of the Republic Gabon, his Excellency Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba, paid a visit to the site to see for himself. After he had gained an overview of the entire route from a helicopter, the President visited the construction site departing from Camp B, which is located at kilometre 58, not far from the oil fields of Breme. All in all, he and his escort stopped at four crucial points to assure themselves of the orderly construction progress and quality.
In order to get to Camp B by land and ensure the construction work of the final concrete bridges, a temporary site access road and two steel approach bridges, with a total length of almost 8 km, spanning the arms of the river Ogooué and the mouth of the Nkomi lagoon, were built. For the road itself, a stable foundation must be created due to the problematic subsoil with high ground water level. For this purpose, the roadway will be enlarged by removing vegetation and topsoil in a width of about 20 m. The wide base enables the uniform distribution of weight by means of a 1 to 2 m high dam, without the risk of further settlement. In some sections the dam will be additionally reinforced by soil replacement as well as pile foundations
The second large Camp A of the construction site was installed near to the mouth of the Ogooué River at Ozouri, where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Ozouri is situated at Kilometre 13 of the project. The construction material laboratory is located in camp A with a multiple of test instruments, such as a plate bearing tester, an asphalt binder and characterisation device as well as a combined compression / bending test machine, which can simulate up to 3,000 kN. GAUFF engineers verify the data of the Chinese building contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and examine if the utilised materials are suitable for the respective application purpose and if they will withstand all load and any weather condition in the long run.
Meanwhile up to 30 employees of GAUFF Engineering and more than 600 local and Chinese construction workers from CRBC are employed on the construction site. The next planned construction phases will focus on building the 60 - 80 m deep foundation piles of the two final pre stressed concrete bridges, which need to be erected for the around 300 bridge pillars of the 9,2 km long construction of the concrete bridge structures, crossing the arms of the Ogooué delta and the mouth of the Nkomi lagoon.
During a discussion with Uwe Gauff, the managing partner of GAUFF Engineering, President Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba pointed out, that he was particularly impressed by the execution on time and the high quality of the work on this project path-breaking for Gabon.
aLibreville TV: Interview with the President (French)
