Ponte Samora Machel

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Ponte Samora Machel over the Zambezi in Tete, Mozambique

The Ponte Samora Machel is a toll road bridge to cross the Zambezi in the Mozambican city ​​of Tete . It was the first and for a long time the only road bridge in Mozambique over this river. It not only connects Tete with Moatize on the other side of the river, but also the parts of the country north and south of the Zambezi in the course of road 103, grants the northern parts of the country access to the port city of Beira and is also part of the road link between Malawi and Zimbabwe .

It is named after Samora Machel , the first President of the People's Republic of Mozambique (1975–1986).

The Ponte Samora Machel is 120 km below the Cahora-Bassa dam , where only pedestrians can cross the Zambezi. 230 km downstream is the Dona Ana Bridge , a railway bridge , and 280 km downstream, the Armando Guebuza Bridge near Caia, which opened in 2009 , is the last bridge before the Zambezi flows into the Indian Ocean .

The Ponte Samora Machel was built by order of the Portuguese colonial administration according to the plans of Edgar Cardoso and finally opened in 1973.

It is a 720 m long suspension bridge with two lanes and one walkway each. It crosses the Zambezi with three spans of 180 m each and the outer spans of 70 m each and thus has four pairs of pylons. Their relatively flat suspension cables remain several meters above the bridge deck in the middle of the span. Their hangers are not vertical, but at an angle, stretched alternately forwards and backwards, so that a zigzag pattern is created. The anchor blocks are large concrete structures, some of which are located above the ground.

The bridge suffered from heavy traffic during the construction work on the Cahora-Bassa dam and from a lack of maintenance and repair, so that at the beginning of the century traffic had to be restricted to one lane and one truck at a time. In 2009, the renovation work planned by António Reis began and was completed in January 2011. Since the opening of the Ponte de Kassuende , five kilometers to the south, the bridge has been closed to heavy traffic.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Salomão Muiambo: construída SOBRE O RIO ZAMBEZE EM TETE: Nova ponte aberta ao tráfego. In: Jornal Notícias. November 13, 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2014 (Portuguese).

Coordinates: 16 ° 9 ′ 16.1 ″  S , 33 ° 35 ′ 38.9 ″  E