New Bridge Connects Botswana and Zambia
Daewoo Engineering & Construction (E&C) has completed Kazungula Bridge over the Zambezi River in Botswana, Africa.
Daewoo E&C said on Oct. 8 that it received a taking-over certificate from the Botswanan and Zambian governments on Sept. 5, along with a certificate of 10 million accident-free hours.
The bridge is the first extradosed bridge construction project that Daewoo E&C won overseas in 2014.
Kazungula Bridge is a 923-meter-long, 18.5-meter-wide extradosed bridge with a 687-meter-long access road and a 2,170-meter-long single-track railway. The bridge is expected to improve the transportation and logistics infrastructure around the region.
As Kazungula Bridge is a bridge with a railway and a road, the safety of the bridge itself significantly matters. Therefore, an extradosed bridge model was applied to it as it can widen distances between piers and has an advantage in vibration control.
An extradosed bridge is a bridge where a girder-reinforcing cable is attached to the main tower like the cable of a cable-stayed bridge. The exterior of an extradosed bridge looks like a cable-stayed bridge. But the height of its tower is lower than that of a cable-stayed bridge so the cable plays a relatively small role in buttressing the upper layer of the bridge. Therefore, the upper layer should be designed to be stronger.
An extradosed bridge is structurally more advantageous than a cable-stayed bridge as a railway bridge.
Kazungula Bridge has six main towers standing in a row, which provides a fine view. It is expected to become a landmark in the region.