The Adomi Bridge which has become a major tourist site needs a convenient car parking space to enable revelers who patronize the site to enjoy the serene ambiance with some sense of safety.
In view of the challenge of lack of parking space, some internal tourists have called on the government and other relevant authorities to create a recreational park to serve as side attraction and car parking space near the Adomi Bridge.
The Adomi Bridge which was originally known as the Volta Bridge and located at Atimpoku in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region was classified as a tourist site in April 2019.
The magnificent crescent-shaped bridge which was built between 1955 and 1956, has a width of the carriageway of 22 feet and 330 tons of weight of steel in its main span and serves as a link between the Volta Region and the Eastern Region over the Volta River.
According to the internal tourists who visited the place on the New Year holiday, there was the need for a parking place since it was difficult to get a place to park before embarking on a photo-shooting expedition on the bridge and site seeing of events on the lake.
They noted that authorities could create a space at both ends of the bridge and take a fee from tourists to park, this, they noted would not only provide the needed safe parking for tourists but would also generate revenue for the development of the site.
Mr. Simon S. Tetteh, an internal tourist said even though a lot could be done to boost the tourism potential around the bridge it seems authorities were yet to see the need for a parking place to encourage more people to visit the premises.
Mr. Tetteh added that even though the scenery was beautiful due to the greenery around it, the hill view, as well as having people cruising in boats on the lake under the bridge, the speed of vehicles on the bridge must be checked and controlled especially on holidays when tourists visited to ensure their safety and prevent knockdown and crashes.
On why he visited the place, he said he wanted the family to embark on some internal tourism as well as give the children the opportunity to see some of the national assets they were learning about in their history books.
Giving his impression, he said as a building engineer, he appreciated the quality of work done on the latticed steel arch suspension bridge saying, “knowing that it was in 2015 that a major renovation was done on it since the mid-1950s that it was constructed, showed the quality of work done on it back then”.
Mr. Alfred Elorm, an internal tourist, on his part, supported the call for a parking place and speed reduction on the bridge to make tourists have a conducive environment to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Mr. Elorm said, “we are from Tema so it is a family get-away, we wanted to get away from the city, we didn’t even have a destination, we were just driving and ended up here, this is a nice place to take pictures and enjoy the beauty of nature coupled with the many resorts around, we have not regretted coming here.”
Meanwhile Mr. Gabriel Ahoto, a photographer said as a resident of Atimpoku, and a momo agent, often provided photography services for tourists who visited the Adomi Bridge to make some additional money for the family.
Mr. Ahoto said tourists’ visits to the bridge during the Christmas and New Year festivities were not encouraging compared to the past as according to him, he was unable to make the average of GHC400.00 he used to make each holiday.
He said this time around he made an average of GHC100.00 only, saying that even though an instantly printed picture was GHC5.00 those who visited often turned down the request to snap them with the excuse of not having enough monies, and would therefore use their mobile phones to capture their experiences and special moments.
