AFRICA’S LONGEST SUSPENSION BRIDGE TO OPEN IN JUNE

Mozambique to commission Africa’s Longest Suspension Bridge in June 2018.

The commissioning of Africa’s longest suspension bridge will be on the 25^th of June this year. The bridge is currently under construction in Mozambique.  It’s commissioning date is also the same date as Mozambique independence in 1975.

The Maputo-Catembe Bridge costs a whooping US$700m. It is part of a larger project that includes a set of access roads on both banks and other roads, including one leading to Ponta do Ouro, a beach area near the border with the province of Natal in South Africa.

Construction of the bridge began in 2014 through a Mozambique and Chinese governments joint construction and management project. Completion of the bridge was supposedly for 2017, but insufficient construction materials lead to its postponement.

Currently the project is already at 97% completion. The 3km long bridge will connect Maputo with Catembe on the southern part of Maputo Bay. It will also cut down the driving time to 4 hours instead of 9 hours to drive round the bay.

Having a width of 680m, the bridge will be able to carry high volume of traffic on both directions. This also replaces the current ferry system and various road systems that transport goods and tourists from South Africa and Swaziland into Mozambique.

Maputo-Catembe Bridge will also pave way for development at the Catembe area particularly in commercial and housing sectors. It help in solving the problem of a lack of space for more buildings in the capital city.

Apart from being Africa’s longest suspension bridge, the Maputo-Catembe will also be ranked among the 60 largest suspended bridges in the world.