Ambassador-designate to Sierra Leone Daniel Travis has disclosed that an agreement exists between the Government of Sierra Leone and US company Acrow Corporation of Pennsylvania to design and build the long-awaited Lungi Bridge, linking Freetown to the international airport across the Sierra Leone River.
The revelation came in Travis’s opening statement to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 5 August 2026 during his confirmation hearing.
He described the project as part of a pipeline of American-led initiatives with the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in US exports and strengthen American commercial leadership in Sierra Leone’s economic future.
Acrow, founded in 1951 and with decades of experience delivering modular steel bridges in more than 150 countries (including over 40 in Africa), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Sierra Leone in June 2025 for a design-build-operate-transfer (DBOT or BOOT) arrangement.
Then-US Ambassador Bryan David Hunt attended the signing at State House. The roughly 7–8 km bridge is intended to cut the current multi-hour ferry, water-taxi or road journey between the capital and Lungi Airport to a short drive, boosting connectivity, tourism, trade and economic activity in Western Area and Port Loko District.
Earlier plans had involved Chinese firms, including a reported 2023 understanding with China Road and Bridge Corporation, but the government later pursued the partnership with the American company. Construction has not yet begun; the project has been discussed for years, with cost estimates previously ranging from about $1.2 billion to $2 billion, and remains one of the country’s most closely watched infrastructure ambitions.
Travis’s comments come as the United States, under the second Trump administration, recalibrates its approach to Africa, moving away from traditional aid dependency toward prioritising private investment, trade, critical minerals access, energy projects and mutual commercial benefit.
Sierra Leone holds minerals important to US manufacturing and security interests. American companies have already invested more than $500 million in the country, and other US-linked initiatives include energy projects such as the DFC-backed Nant Energy LNG effort. Travis also noted Sierra Leone’s recent role as ECOWAS chair amid intensifying regional competition.
If confirmed by the Senate, Travis, a career Senior Foreign Service officer and California native currently serving in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, would succeed the previous ambassadorial vacancy left after Bryan Hunt’s departure. The embassy has been led in the interim by chargés d’affaires.
For ordinary Sierra Leoneans, progress on the Lungi Bridge would address a daily practical frustration that has long complicated travel, business and tourism. Whether the Acrow agreement advances from MoU to full financing, construction and eventual handover will be watched closely as a test of the new US emphasis on commercially driven partnerships.
