China-built Large-span Bridge Promotes Southern Africa's Development

The suspension bridge with the largest span in Africa - the Maputo-Katembe Bridge - opened in November 2018, in Mozambique.

The bridge is about three kilometers long and 680 meters wide, and connects Mozambique's capital Maputo on the northern bank and the suburb of Katembe on the southern bank.

The opening of the bridge enabled people to travel more easily between the two banks and has promoted Katembe's development, which builds a foundation for the rapid development of southern Mozambique and even all of southern Africa.

Generally contracted by China Road & Bridge Corporation (CRBC), other Chinese central SOEs such as The Second Highway Survey Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. of China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC), China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, CCCC Highway Consultants Co., Ltd., Road & Bridge International Co., Ltd, CCCC Second Highway Engineering Co., Ltd, CCCC Fourth Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd. and Zhenhua Port Machinery Company Limited also participated in the construction of the bridge.

During the construction, 3,788 jobs were provided to local people and more than 5,000 technical workers obtained skills.

Achieving Mozambique people's will

Seen from above, the capital is separated into two parts, the coast of Maputo, with a prosperous downtown, tall buildings and busy roads and the Katembe, an area scattered with villages.

Before the Maputo-Katembe Bridge was completed, it was only possible to travel between the two parts by ship, which was inconvenient and time-wasting.

Besides its contribution to transportation, the bridge also supports Katembe in terms of tourism, investment, employment and economic growth.

Katembe is one of the best tourism destinations in the Indian Ocean region and is home to only about 30,000 residents.

In recent years, more and more foreigners invested in the area and many people rushed into the capital, hunting for job opportunities.

With rich land and tourism resources, Katembe must relieve unemployment and traffic pressures in the capital through accepting factories that used to set up in Maputo.

The Maputo-Katembe Bridge became a key to relocating projects. It not only improves the traffic situation on the southern coast, giving Mozambique its own north-south overland transportation line, but also promotes trade and tourism.

Bai Pengyu, general manager of the Mozambique office of CRBC, said "The Maputo-Katembe Bridge plays a role in Mozambique's connectivity and communications and is a reflection of the principle of the Belt and Road Initiative. It will be a witness of China-Mozambique friendship."

Generally speaking, the opening of the bridge will improve Mozambique's trade with neighboring countries. A related government department of KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa affirmed the significance of the bridge and said it would promote trade and tourism between the two countries.

The department also mentioned that with the new road, it would take only 90 minutes to travel from Maputo to South Africa's border check post on the east coast.

At the opening ceremony of the bridge, Filipe Nyusi, president of Mozambique, pointed out that the Chinese construction team helped Mozambique complete a project deserving to go down in the country's history.

He stressed that the opening of the bridge was in accordance with the will of the Mozambique people.

Conquering hardships, building a best bridge

The construction of the Maputo-Katembe Bridge was completed on Oct 25, 2017.

The installation of the steel box girders was one of the most difficult sections of the project as the processing and assembly of the girders could not be conducted at the construction site and the shipping lanes on the south bank were too shallow to berth large-scale girder transport ships.

That meant that girders could not be processed, transported and unloaded directly to the construction site.

To solve the problems, an innovative mode - adopting a rotating lifting appliance into a cable hoisting system - was used to install the girders shipped entirely from China to the Maputo Port. Other advanced technical skills were also adopted to finish the mission.

It took only 25 days, 20 days earlier than the scheduled time to complete the girder installation.

In addition to the girders, the quality of the bridge's north concrete anchor was also a key part of the construction as flaws may appear under the influence of temperature.

Therefore, the interior circulatory system of water-cooled tubes and the real-time monitoring system of the exterior and interior temperature of the concrete played important roles in helping technicians adjust temperatures through blending and adding water and ice.

Blackouts and shortages of water supply added to the hardship of the project. However, the construction team conquered the difficulties and passed the quality test conducted by the University of Cape Town under the standard of SABS-2015 and SANS.

The bridge won the Fulton Award in 2017, which is the highest award given for concrete engineering quality in Africa and was titled "the largest suspension bridge with the best quality of concrete".

The suspension bridge with the largest span in Africa, the Maputo-Katembe Bridge, opens in November 2018, in Mozambique. [Photo/China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC)]

The Maputo-Katembe Bridge connects Mozambique's capital Maputo on the northern bank and the suburb of Katembe on the southern bank. [Photo/China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC)]

(Executive editor: Li Shuling)