The two separate segments of the newly constructed Nile Bridge in Jinja have been closed at a landmark ceremony held on Friday. The ceremony termed as the girder closure comes after months of constructing the 525 meter-long bridge.
The two large iron or steel beam structures built concurrenntly from the Njeru and Jinja river banks were Friday joined together to complete the full length of the bridge. The ceremony was attended by Minister of Works and Transport, Eng Monica Azuba, Japanese Ambassador in Uganda, Kazuaki Kameda, the UNRA Executive Director, Allen Kagina among other delegates.
Construction of the USD 125 million bridge which runs across River Nile is set for completion in August having began in 2014.
In her remarks, Kagina described the girder closure as a significant mark in the “very important and high profile Project”.
With an overall width of 22.9 metres, the New Nile Bridge will be the longest single plane cable configuration in the entire African continent. The bridge has a central span of 290m, end spans of 135m and 100m on the east and west banks respectively.
It has a dual carriageway 7m wide with a pedestrian walk way of 2.25m wide on both ends. Kagina said that due to security reasons, the Bridge will have lighting facilities at night.
The bridge’s foundation of 1.5m and 2.0m diameter piles are embedded approximately 14-23m deep into hard rock. The new 1.83km long asphalt approach roads has three at-grade junctions at Nile Breweries, Nytil and Jinja round about to allow interchange of traffic to the existing road network.
“Cutting edge technology Digital Structural Health Monitoring Systems (SHMS) will be installed to monitor the axle loads of the traffic passing on the Bridge, stresses and strains in the cable and will communicate the distresses which will signal maintenance requirements,” the UNRA E.D said.
She gave assurance that all the necessary standards including environmental protection had been maintained by the contractor (Zenitaka Corporation of Japan) in the process of construction.
Minister Azuba said Friday’s ceremony was “another special milestone towards the rehabilitation and upgrade of the most important Corridor Route in Uganda and East Africa” which starts from Mombasa through Malaba/Busia in the Eastern part of Uganda and connects us to our neighbors Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Eastern Congo.
“The Northern Corridor crosses the River Nile here at Jinja. This bridge when completed will support the ever increasing trade volumes between Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Southern Sudan and Burundi,” she said.
The Old Nalubaale Bridge will continue to be used until August when it will be closed to traffic as the New Nile Bridge will pass vehicles more safely and eight times faster.
