The bridge has a total length of 4.7km, including a 520m low-pylon cable-stayed section, making it the longest in East Africa.
It will be declared open by Tanzanian president Samia Suluhu Hassan on 19 June. The project was funded entirely by her government.
In the past, communications along the south of Lake Victoria relied on ferries, which added three hours to journeys and stifled economic activity between Lake Zone towns.
The bridge will carry a 120km/h dual carriageway, which will knit together the Tanzanian towns of Usagara, Sengerema and Geita, which are centres of mining and other activities.
On a regional scale, Lake Victoria has the potential to become a trade hub between the densely populated Great Lake states of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The bridge extends the B163 across the Gulf of Mwanza (Google Maps)Abdallah Ulega, the minister of public works, said this made the bridge a flagship achievement for his government.
He stressed the government’s success in meeting the cost of construction by itself.
“The JP Magufuli Bridge stands as a powerful symbol of our country’s capacity to mobilise domestic resources for transformative infrastructure,” he said, adding it would “unlock the vast economic potential of the Lake Zone”.
The design and construction work for the bridge was carried out by a joint venture between China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and China Railway 15th Bureau.
Tanzania has something of a special relationship with CCECC, dating back to its building of the epic Tazara line in the 1970s (see further reading).
The State Council of China hailed the project as a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative.
It commented that the building team developed “innovative eco-friendly building techniques”, such as a cofferdam that avoided the need for underwater concrete pours and minimised environmental impact on the lake.
Work on the bridge began in 2019 under late president John Magufuli, but was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Its original name, the Kigongo-Busisi Bridge, was renamed following Magufuli’s death in 2021.
Subscribe here to get stories about construction around the world in your inbox three times a weekFurther reading:
China’s CCECC to invest $1.4bn in Africa’s Tazara line for 30-year concession Tanzania picks Chinese contractors to build $2.2bn rail link to Burundi Kenya to take over Mombasa-Nairobi railway from China by year-end Tanzania buys Chinese freight wagons as standard gauge railway gets off to flying startWork completed on East Africa’s longest bridge Global Construction Review.
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