Ponte Dona Ana
Coordinates: 17 ° 26 ′ 21 ″ S , 35 ° 3 ′ 41 ″ E
| Ponte Dona Ana | ||
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| use | Railway and pedestrian bridge | |
| Crossing of | Zambezi | |
| place | Sena - Mutarara, Mozambique | |
| construction | Truss bridge | |
| overall length | 3543 m | |
| Number of openings | 40 + ramp viaduct | |
| Longest span | 33 × 80 m, 7 × 50.3 m | |
| start of building | 1931 | |
| completion | 1935 | |
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The Ponte Dona Ana is a railway bridge over the lower Zambezi between the places Sena and Mutarara in Mozambique and thus connects the two halves of the country.
The 3543 m long bridge with a cape gauge track was considered the longest railway bridge in the world and is currently the longest railway bridge in Africa. It consists of 33 steel, riveted truss arches with pillar spacing of 80 m and 7 arches of 50.3 m as well as a 550.4 m long foreland bridge, which is reminiscent of a low Trestle bridge . On its northern, upstream side, it has a footbridge.
The bridge was built between 1931 and 1935 during the Portuguese colonial era to connect the British protectorate of Nyassaland (until 1907 British Central Africa, now Malawi ) and the Mozambican coal mines of Moatize with the port of Beira . The clients were the Central Africa Railway Company and the British Trans-Zambesia Railway Company . The new route with the bridge was financed and operated by Nyasaland Railways Ltd. The bridge, then known as the Lower Zambezi Bridge , was built by Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Co. , which had built the Victoria Falls Bridge 40 years earlier . At times between four and six thousand people were employed on the construction site. It was not until 1968 that the route was acquired by Portuguese entrepreneurs.
In 1980, during the Mozambican civil war , RENAMO rebels made the building unusable.
In 1995 the bridge was restored as a single-lane road bridge, supported by USAID funds . It was not part of a major road, but it offered an alternative way of crossing the Zambezi in Mozambique. The only other option was the Ponte Samora Machel in Tete . The Ponte Dona Ana was the last bridge before the mouth of the Zambezi into the Indian Ocean . In 2007, however, construction began on the Armando Guebuza bridge near Caia , which replaces the Caia ferry and has been the last bridge in front of the ocean since its completion in August 2009.
The Ponte Don Ana was rebuilt from July 1st, 2006 and has been in operation again as a railway bridge since 2009.
Look into the bridge when it was a road bridge (2004)
The 40 trusses in a panoramic view (2006)
The Ponte Dona Ana as a railway bridge (2018)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b A história da ponte Dona Ana, sobre o rio Zambeze entre Sena e Mutara.
- ↑ The bridge therefore had English dimensions: 33 girders each 262 ft 6 ″ and 7 girders each 165 ft as well as the 1805 ft 8 ″ long foreland bridge add up to 8662 ft 6 ″ + 1155 ft + 1805 ft 8 ″ = 11623 ft 2 ″ or 3542.74 m
- ^ Dona Ana Bridge in Mozambique ( Memento from July 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) lookbridges.com.
- ↑ Mozambique: Comboios já circulam na ponte Dona Ana, sobre o rio Zambeze ( Memento of March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Article of May 21, 2009 on macauhub.com.