AN ADDITIONAL $20million is being sought by the Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) to fund for repair works immediately needed on some 30 bridges in Fiji.
This was revealed by FRA manager change, Mike Rudge yesterday saying this was a result of a structural survey on the bridge inventory in the country.
He said the authority would prioritise those bridges, whereby the request for additional funding in this year's budget allocation for the 2013 operational year.
He said message had already been passed to Cabinet.
Asked on the extent of work needed on at least 30 bridges with serious problems, Mr Rudge said the authority was in the process of going through that process.
"We're going through each bridge, identifying what remedial works we can put in place to make it safe right away, what options are open to us," he said.
He says the extent of the work to be carried out on those bridges will vary "dramatically from bridge to bridge" because they will need to establish exactly what the problem is, where it is, and how much traffic it takes.
"So we have to prioritise based on the extensive damage, traffic, and risk and safety issues," Mr Rudge said.
"Some of them no doubt we'll be putting bailey bridges on top and others we will be replacing," he said.
Last week, the authority conducted inspections on bridges in Suva where it noted the two bridges at Stinson Pd and Fletcher Rd were unsafe for use, and a decision was made overnight to close both bridges.