At a cost of US $129m, and with an estimated design life of 120 years, the new bridge is aimed at relieving traffic from the existing deteriorating bridge that was constructed over 60 years back by the British colonial government, improving communication on the Northern Corridor Route, a major link for Uganda and its landlocked Central African neighbors.

“The Bridge’s picturesque features and strategic location near the source of the Nile will present tourist and resort advantages to the benefit of local and international investors,” says Lawrence Pario, Head of Bridges and Structures, Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA).

The New Nile Bridge’s uniqueness is in it being the longest single-plane cable configuration with a waterproof deck on the entire African Continent. The bridge deck has a 7 meters wide dual two-way carriageway with a pedestrian walkway of 2.25 meters wide on both ends; complete with street lighting facilities and a digital health monitoring system that monitors the load of the traffic passing, stresses, and strains in the cable, and communicates the distresses which will signal maintenance requirements. The overall width of the Bridge is 22.9 meters wide.

Moreover, an automatic weigh-in-motion (WIM) system will be installed on the approach roads to deter overweight traffic from crossing. “The Bridge is a landmark on the continent, and we are glad as a local company to have teamed up with Sika to construct the waterproof deck,” says Bridget Kholer, director of Roko Technical Services a sub-contractor on the project.