Rumours, preconceived notions, clichés, superstitions, urban legend: What is real? What is fake?
Cameroon is the only country in the world where two cities are linked through a container

Cameroon is the only country in the world where two cities are linked through a container

Paru le dimanche, 18 décembre 2016 15:34

According to the rumour mill, this type of bridge is a typical Cameroonian method of creating a temporary permanent solution.

After the road linking Yaoundé to Douala collapsed on 21 October 2016, the company Routd’Af, patched up the two stretches of road around the town of Manyaï by using a forty foot container as a conveyor belt to cross over the water.

On top of the container the technicians used a metal frame which is supported by the adjoining embankments. Which means that the container does not bear the loads from the heavy traffic. This method led some Cameroonians to say that “Cameroon is the only country in the world where towns are linked by a container”.

Eméryc Djeumen, Project Director at Routd’Af explains that using a container as temporary bridge is not exclusive only to Cameroon. According to him this is a method often used in several countries worldwide, but on a temporary basis. A little search on internet reveals that on the website francetvinfo.fr, on 29 January 2016, a road was blocked in Guyana (France), in the borough of Apatou in January 2016. A for a good reason, since a machine weighing over 26 tons damaged one of the wooden bridges of an earth-surfaced road.

“The traffic disruption lasted over a month before the bridge was temporarily replaced by a container. Workers dug about a hundred stakes under the container so that it would support a daily traffic of 300 vehicles on this pathway (school buses, farmers, ambulances, people living in the neighbourhood or riding motorcycles). A permanent concrete bridge will be built in principle in 2017”, francetvinfo.fr reports.

Sylvain Andzongo

Dernière modification le dimanche, 18 décembre 2016 15:42

● Fact Cheking




● E-SCAMS