Tanzania’s futuristic Tanzanite bridge to open in December
Tanzania’s new US$104.7-million Tanzanite bridge is expected to be completed by December.
CAPE TOWN, September 20 (ANA) – Tanzania’s new US$104.7-million Tanzanite bridge is expected to be completed by December.
The Tanzanite bridge, located in the coastal Dar es Salaam, is 93% complete, Tanzania’s Minister of Works and Transport Professor Makame Mbarawa said on Monday.
The futuristic bridge is just over 1km long and more than 20m wide, and crosses a strip of the Indian Ocean to connect Coco Beach and Aga Khan Hospital.
Mbarawa was conducting an inspection of the bridge where surface construction is under way, local news publication The Citizen reported on Monday.
Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) CEO Rogatus Mativila informed Mbarawa that besides tarring the surface of the bridge, drain trenches and street lights were all that remain to complete the Tanzanite bridge.
With its 180-ton capacity, the bridge will alleviate traffic on Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road and carry 55,000 vehicles a day.
According to Construction Review Online, in August the chairperson of Tanzania’s parliamentary standing committee on infrastructure, Seleman Kakoso, said: “We are pleased with the progress of this project as well as the capacity-building programme for local contractors so that when this construction is completed they will have the skills to implement the construction of other bridges.”
South Korean GS Engineering & Construction Corporation (GS E&C) is building the bridge, with 92% of the 590-person construction team being Tanzanian and the remaining 8% coming from abroad.
South Korea’s Economic Development Co-operation Fund (EDCF) is providing its largest loan for a “social overhead capital project in Africa” at US$91 million to fund the Tanzanite bridge, Maeil Business News Korea’s English digital platform Pulse wrote in August 2018.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
