The bridge is believed to be the longest clear-span bridge in the whole of Nepal.
Photo: DFID Nepal
The 120m-long UK-funded bridge is described as a lifeline, allowing communities to work and trade, send their children to school and access health care. According to the UK Department for International Development, the bridge will improve access for 800,000 Nepalis.
The bridge was designed and fabricated by British steel bridge company Reidstee and built by local company Kalika Construction. Reidsteel designed this and a crossing of the Arun Khola to be erected without access into the river, but the contractor elected to take advantage of the seasonal reduction in the river’s flow and build it on supports instead of using cantilever launching.
Locally produced steel trestles were installed on a series of gabions. Tthe bridge’s lower chords were erected and braced on these. The intermediate chord, complete with bracing and anti-collision steel, was then added. Construction took less than a year; Reidsteel said that the normal time for a bridge to be built in Nepal is five years.
The bridge across the Arun Khola is under construction.
