Transport operations along the Morogoro-Dodoma highway in Tanzania resumed on Wednesday night after a bridge collapsed due to heavy rains on Monday and disrupted movement of goods and people from Rwanda to Tanzania, sources have told The New Times.
The Morogoro-Dodoma highway is a very important central corridor connecting Rwanda to the crucial port city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Tanzanian Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa Majaliwa, visited the scene Wednesday afternoon, to see how restoration efforts by his country's Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication were being expedited.
The Ministry had been hard at work since Tuesday, in an effort to quickly restore normal transport operations along the highway. Heavy equipment was deployed at the site and immediately began restoration work on the bridge which was destroyed by heavy rains which continue to pound the region, destroying costly infrastructure as well as demolishing homes and farmlands.
Speaking from the site on Tuesday, Eng Isack Kamwelwe, Tanzania's Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, noted that they were going to put two large culverts, three meters in diameter each, so that a lot of water can go underneath without wrecking the bridge anymore.
The Rwandan High Commission in Tanzania earlier confirmed to The New Times that it was in touch with the Ministry of Works there and that the government there is "very committed to quickly" restoring the key transport link.
The damaged road is the main route used for goods coming to Rwanda from Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port.
More than 90 percent of Rwanda's goods pass through Dar port as going through another highway passing through the southerly Iringa would add about 304 extra kilometers, time and cost.
Earlier, Fred Seka, the President of the Federation of East Africa Freight Forwarders told The New Times that delays to repair the road will trigger business losses.
Yusuf Rutayisire, a Rwandan heavy truck driver was among the first people to arrive at the broken bridge, on Monday. He spoke to The New Times from the busy scene on Wednesday and expressed optimism things would return to normal sooner than later.
On Thursday Morning, Rutayisire who was enroute to Dar to pick a consignment of cement with his 32 tonne truck said that he was able to leave the area around 9pm on Wednesday.
A happy Rutayisire was already at Wazo Hill Twiga Cement Factory located about 30 km northwest of Dar es Salaam when The New Times caught up with him again.
Rutayisire said: "The road bridge has not been fully restored but we were able to move, thanks to the great effort put in by authorities here. Yesterday afternoon, the Prime Minister also arrived at the scene and held a meeting with people including all of us stranded drivers and assured us that they were going to call in soldiers from Dodoma and Morogoro to help."
"He assured us that a small path would be created so that vehicles move. So, they indeed came and made it happen. A small crossing was elected and it allows vehicles to move through, one by one, and that is how we crossed. Clearly, proper restoration works are still ongoing."
Rutayisire had Wednesday afternoon estimated that on his side of the road there more than 200 vehicles including passenger service vehicles, on his side.
According to the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), customs officials handle 280 cargo trucks on the Central Corridor every day.
By and large, rain-triggered flash floods and landslides have affected many people across east Africa in recent weeks.
In Rwanda, heavy rains on Sunday and Monday killed one person in Ndera Sector, Gasabo District and injured 11 others and infrastructure was damaged.
Last week, the Rwanda Meteorology Agency made "above normal" rainfall predictions for the next three months. Since last September, heavy rains have claimed dozens of lives, devastated property and jeopardised food security with out-of-chain food prices until now.
It is not clear what has caused the latest weather pattern but experts have said that the current rains have been enhanced by a phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
The phenomenon also known as the Indian Niño, is an irregular oscillation of sea surface temperatures in which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately warmer (positive phase) and then colder (negative phase) than the eastern part of the ocean.
It is reported that, when positive, IOD can cause a rise in water temperatures in the Indian Ocean of up to 2C. This leads to higher evaporation rates off the east African coastline and this water then falls inland.
