Uganda’s first Cable stayed bridge joined

After months of constructing Uganda’s first ever cable stayed bridge, the two opposite sides have finally been joined.

The sides, enabling one to cross over the Nile from either side of Njeru or Jinja were joined in a girder closure ceremony graced by Works minister Monica Azuba Ntege and Japanese Ambassador to Uganda Kazuaki Kameda, on Friday.

Girder closure is a ceremony performed to mark the joining of bridge segments constructed from two river banks.

Lawrence Pario, the head of bridges and structures, Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) said the joining of the bridge marked a clear milestone for its construction.

"Joining of the bridge defines the road map to completion of the New Nile bridge. The joining was painstaking and needed precision. It was done perfectly and with no error,” he said.

Speaking at same ceremony, Japanese ambassador Kazuaki said; “The New Nile bridge will bring about added advantage to the tourism sector of Uganda."

UNRA ED Allen Kagina said that the Authority has has embarked on an ambitious programme to upgrade and construct new bridges on the National roads in medium and long term.

She said with the completion of the new bridge in August 2018, the old Nalubale bridge will be closed to new traffic as the Nile Bridge is capable of passing more cars and faster.

She said the new bridge will have lighting systems for security at night and 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.

“During execution of civil works to date,  the Contractor  maintained the highest standard of safety, environmental protection, site cleanliness and maintenance. The quality of water in the Nile River has been maintained to its natural state,” she said.

Minister Azuba said the structure is an iconic landmark in Uganda and will contribute to the economic development.

"This bridge structure will be among the first of its scale and complexity bearing an iconic presence at Uganda’s Gateway- Jinja. For sure, this bridge will significantly contribute to the economic development of Uganda and hence poverty reduction."

The New Nile Bridge is a cable stayed bridge which will best align at 500 metres upstream of Nalubaale Dam with river width of 300 metres.

The Bridge is an iconic longest single plane cable configuration in the entire African Continent. The 525 metre-long bridge has a central span of 290 metres, end spans of 135 metres and 100 metres on the east and west banks respectively.   The overall width of the Bridge is 22.9 metres wide. It has a dual carriageway 7.0 metres wide with a pedestrian walk way of 2.25 metres wide on both ends. For security at night, the Bridge will have lighting facilities.

The bridge’s foundation of 1.5 metres and 2.0 metres diameter piles are embedded approximately 14-23 metres 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.