“It brings more convenience for our life.”

In Mombasa, a harbor city in Kenya, a floating bridge, likening a silver loong stretching longitudinally, connects the main island and the southern bank area. On the bridge, vendors are peddling goods loaded on their shoulders or heads, and visitors are delightfully taking photos with the new branded bridge. At the two ends of the bridge, there are bus stations where passengers hustle and bustle. “Since the bridge was put into operation, it has been more convenient for our life and more lively for this place,” a local resident Mwahiponi said.

The Liwatoni Floating Bridge in Mombasa County was constructed by China Road & Bridge Corporation (CRBC), and was officially opened for public use on January 1, 2021. At the completion ceremony of this project, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said, “this is the best new year gift for Mombasa people.”

Mombasa County is the second largest city in Kenya, with busy business, trade, and transportation. But the difficulties in transporting between the southern region and the main island have been a major problem for quite a long time. Before the floating bridge was built, the only way to cross the water was by ferry in which passengers, vehicles and goods of all sorts were crammed. “As carts, motorcycles and other vehicles as well as passengers crowd in the narrow space of the ferry, there are high risks for cross infection,” The Star, a mainstream medium of Kenya, pointed out in a report. The Liwatoni Floating Bridge, functioning as an important project promptly put into use amid the epidemic prevention and control period, will effectively lower the risk of virus transmission.

The China Road & Bride Corporation initiated the construction in September last year and completed the work in less than three months. Its project department conducted the building in the window periods of navigation after coordinating with local port authority and on the basis of virus containment measures. In this method, the impacts on daily transportation were minimized because inserting steel pipe pile, installing Bailey bridge, connecting buoyant boxes and other procedures all took up the main waterway. The floating bridge mainly comprises three components - the buoyant box, the steel trestle, and the approach - and is 1,953 meters in length, with a 6-meter-wide pavement on it. In addition, there is a 186-meter-long segment whose opening and closing are subject to remote controller, in a bid to facilitate ships entering and leaving the harbor.

Complemented with the current ferry service, the floating bridge has ensured the separate flows of human and goods, and the flux has achieved 300,000 persons a day. “We have long been eager for such a day!” said a local resident Martha Atino. Previously, it took at least 45 minutes to travel across the strait and back by ferry, but it now takes less than 10 minutes by walking on the bridge. The pains of going out for people on both sides have thus been significantly alleviated. At present, Kenya Ports Authority, National Highways Authority and other departments are working on the coordination between navigation and commuting, so as to make full use of the newly-built floating bridge.

(Source: Chinaqw; Translation: the Secretariat)