The bridge was built with Japanese funding and during the opening ceremony in Neak Loeung, about 60km east of Phnom Penh, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen thanked Japan for its assistance: “Long live the friendship between Cambodia and Japan.” The bridge was built at a cost of around US$130 million.
The bridge is 2,220m long, 13m wide and 37.5m high above the water level during the rainy season. The main structure uses 160 cables to support the 330m-long span.
The bridge in Kandal Province is part of links in the ‘southern economic corridor’, a 1,000km-long road linking Ho Chi Minh City with Bangkok via Phnom Penh.
The Tsubasa bridge is the third large-scale bridge donated so far by Japan after the Cambodia-Japan Friendship Bridge built across the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh and the Kizuna Bridge across the Mekong in the country’s eastern province of Kompong Cham.
In a gesture of gratitude for Japan’s grant assistance, Cambodia earlier this year issued a new 500 riel banknote carrying images of the two Japan-built bridges that span the Mekong.
