Due to damage caused by power interruptions, two-thirds of the digital truck scales in the country are out of service and cannot monitor overloaded vehicles entering and leaving the country.

The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) has been measuring overloaded trucks since June 2018 to protect roads and bridges from damage. The Authority operates 14 weighbridge stations, which measure axle loads on scales, at the roads that have higher traffic flow.

The scales with automatic data collection systems were installed with a 150-million-Br grant secured from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). All centres have machine scales that are 18 metres by three metres in size.

The scales were torn due to electric power interruptions, according to Abraham Abdela, road asset system management director at the Authority.

“The scales are sensitive," he said, "and were damaged by reduced power flow or power interruptions.”

Before June 2018, the country used to have 11 single-axle weighbridges, which were replaced by an automatic data collection system. While replacing the older scales, the Authority installed three new scales. The Japanese firm Yamato Scale Co., Ltd made and installed the scales.

The upgrade was made to modernise axle load control systems at strategic control points to strengthen the capacity for monitoring overloaded vehicles, according to Alemayehu Teresa, road safety and traffic management team leader at the Authority.

"The installation of the new scales decreased the measurement time of a six-axle vehicle from 180 seconds to only 10 seconds," he said.

Seven of the scales are located in Oromia Regional State, specifically at Sendafa, Modjo, Holeta, Sululta, Jimma, Shashemene and Alemgena. Tigray has two stations at Tik, located close to Dansha town, and Quiha, found three kilometres south of Meqelle.

Amhara and Afar regional states have two each: Semera and Awash in Afar and Kombolcha and Wereta in Amhara regional states. The remaining scale is located at Dengego in Somali Regional State.

Currently, only scales at Kombolcha, Awash, Jimma, Quiha and Semera are in service, and the Authority is using the single-axle weighbridges to monitor overloaded vehicle scales at the other stations.

The load controlling scales need 0.8 volts of electric power, but the flow of electricity to the weighbridges was often below what was needed and not sufficient to operate the machine scales, according to Abraham.

“Electric power insufficiency was the main reason for the breakdown of the computerised scales,” he said.

Due to electric flow instability, the machine scales began going out of service in October of last year. The first machine scale to go bust was in Dengego, located close to Dire Dawa, in October 2019, and the most recent was in Holeta two weeks ago.

There might be power fluctuations, particularly around the capital, because the weighbridge stations are located in industrial areas, according to Chala Bonsa, communications manager at Oromia Electric Utility.

"Most of the substations in the peripheral areas of the capital and adjacent locations such as Sendafa, Modjo, Holeta, Sululta and Alemgena are overloaded," he said.