Without a sustained ‘Preventative Maintenance’ policy; corrosion caused collapse. The following picture shows the corrosion to the irreparable surviving upper main loadbearing cable. The broken cables would be in a similar condition. Continued application of suitable paint would have preserved the bridge.

   The inevitable collapse of the Lance Mitan suspension bridge after 99 years is a statement to clever and economic civil engineering defeated by shoddy maintenance.
   The reasons for the bridges construction in the first place, may be attributed to the agriculture of cocoa and other related produce that came from the estate at the ‘other side’ of the river. Remains of structural foundations and other not insignificant wall-works at the ‘beach’ indicate other economic activities which may have included fishing and the siting of a small port.
   A down turn in the economy of the agricultural sector over the intervening years increased the vulnerability of the bridge. As time passed, the area in which the bridge is sited was perceived to be of less commercial significance and being geographically in the ‘far south’ was practically forgotten.
   The inevitable neglect by an under funded Regional Corporation to maintain this bridge, has now led to the loss of a small treasure to the nation.
   This is not the only bridge to have been lost in this area.

   Maintenance of the bridge over the years has replaced the original ‘flooring’ of the bridge with ‘I’ beams that have been used to span the lower cables of the bridge. ‘I’ beams were not available to the original builders as they are a product of a continuous steel process that was not developed until after the turn of the century. Over these ‘I’ beams wooden planks were used to made up the floor of the bridge. The ‘I’ beams were held in place on the lower cable by ‘U’ bolts.

   The pictures above show the general spacing of the ‘I’ beams as they made up the ‘floor’ and the position of the fixing ‘U’ bolts. The ‘U’ bolts show heavy corrosion.