West Hills Mall overpass safe, no cracks as reported - Engineers

Source: myjoyonline.com   There’s no cause for alarm, that’s the position of owners of the West Hills Mall near Weija following reports of mild cracks in the concrete flyovers near the Mall. 
There were social media reports over the weekend of possible crevices in pillars supporting the ultra-modern overpass. .....

But Delico Ghana Limited, owners of the Mall, say their engineers have confirmed the bridge has passed the most rigorous safety test.

They announced this when Roads and Highways Minister Inusah Fuseini toured the facility on Monday January 5.

During a tour of the facility by Joy News, contractors and engineers were seen moving up and down as they raced to finish work on the flyovers.

About twenty strong pillars support each of the two flyovers built over an underpass leading to and from the mall.

Joy News discovered that black lines along pillars in photographs posted on social media were actually carbon deposits or smoke lines. Each of the pillars has a vertical black smoke along it, created when engineers broke open the cylindrical metal casing used to cast the concrete.

“As you see these lines which look like cracks, those have been generated because we built the pillars with metal sleeves and to take them off to get the aesthetic beauty, we wash them off with gas. So the black lines are just carbon deposits,” Yaw Osafo Marfo Jnr, a manager with the construction company working on the project, indicated.

This explanation follows a weekend of social media hype of concerns of possible cracks in the pillars, prompting a visit by Roads and Highways Minister Alhaji Inusah Fuseini.

“My duty as a minister is to ensure that when I receive public complaints I follow up to ensure that the proper thing is done. I can tell you that I’m totally satisfied that what the engineer has explained is actually an engineer’s devil,” Alhaji Fuseini said.

The bridges were constructed with a new technology that enabled engineers to create an underpass beneath an existing road.

The West Hills Mall inaugurated in October last year, is now the biggest shopping and perhaps recreational centre in the country.

The facility is jointly owned by Delico Property Development Limited with 60% shares and Ghana’s Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) with 40% shares.

The West Hills mall includes two supermarket anchor stores, 65-line shops, restaurants, 5-screen cinema complex, and a mix of local and international tenants.

Some of the anchor shops who are tenants of this Mall include Mr. Price, Woolworths, Stanbic Bank, Bata and Pierre Cardin. Hordes of people from across the capital visit the facility, especially on holidays.

Owners of the West Hills Mall, Delico, told Joy News, they have confidence in the contractors working on the project and that there’s no cause for alarm.

For now, work on the flyover is set to be completed by the end of this year while the mall, one of the biggest in West Africa, is open to business