A LONG BRIDGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 December 1934, Page 12

A LONG BRIDGE

THE LOWER ZAMBESI. LONDON. November 1. , “Modern Transport” announces the completion of the last span of the Lower Zambesi Bridge, the longest bridge in the world. New Zealand engineers are to be found in all parts of the world, and it is not unnatural that several New . Zealanders should have helped in the construction of this £1,434,337 project, which is being carried out on behalf of the Central Africa and Trans-Zambesi Railway Companies to provide uninterrupted railway i communication between Beira and Lake Nyasa. The bridge consists of ,2589 ft 3ins of viaduct, thirty-three main spans, and six' approach spans, the aggregate total over-all length being 11,650 ft 9in. The viaduct is level throughout, and i expansion connections are provided between the rail girders and the trestles and between the footway girders and the supporting brackets. The main spans are of the through type with an i open-deck floor, and supported by con-; Crete piers built bn concrete walls { sunk in the bed of the river or on; mass concrete bases founded on the ' rock at the river bank. The centres > of the piers for each main span are; 262 ft 6ins, and each main span is j provided with cast-steel bearings. ! Other bridges of exceptional length' are Tay Bridge (Scotland), 10.527 ft, and the Upper Stone Bridge (India), 10.052 ft. !

For the Hell Gate Bridge, New York, the claim is made of a length of 13,553 ft, but 10,818 ft of this is over land, and only a total of 2735 ft is over three separate branches of the river. The Lower Zambesi Bridge is, however a continuous steel bridge 11,650 ft in length, over a river which, in the winter season, is that width where the bridge crosses.