Cascade bridge collapses-The bridge at Cascade along Providence highway collapsed Tuesday December 28 in the afternoon. |29 December 2004

"As most people were aware, the bridge needed to be repaired, but before we did that, we removed the top layer to see if the damage was just superficial or deep.

"When we discovered faults at the top, we explored it further down, and in the process it caved in," he said.

He said the bridge, which was initially expected to be back in use today, will now require more time to reconstruct, using a method to be determined yet.

"The culverts that had been used have all been damaged and may not be re-usable. We may have to use a more conventional method altogether, for example using concrete, to reconstruct it," he said.

Tuesday's incident at Cascade comes barely two days after the bridge at Roche Caiman along that same east coast road was washed away by the tides.

Mr Andre said that LTD will now concentrate on the Roche Caiman bridge, speeding up its temporary repairs so as to ease congestion on the old road through Plaisance.

"After that we will then turn to the Cascade bridge and also the one at Petit Paris which also needs attention," he said.

Among the first people at the site were Seychelles Petroleum Company (Sepec) technicians who were keen to see if a steel pipe that carries aviation fuel below the bridge had been damaged.

"We see no leaks and the pipe is strong and we would not expect it to be broken easily," Sepec's operations manager James Alvis said.

He said the pipe is 16mm thick and 90 centimetres below the sea bed, so it could not have been affected.

"But should there be a slight leak, we would see the fuel floating on the sea water and immediately shut off the flow," he said.