Today is a notable day in the life of a border town - the official opening of our newly constructed Kazungula Bridge over the Zambezi, linking Botswana and Zambia.
Our Zambian border has now been officially transformed from a historical ferry crossing in all its African, chaotic, colourful glory - into an elegantly engineered road crossing, spanning one of Africa’s iconic rivers.
Over the past few years the bridge’s gradual construction has been part of life in our town and we have been observing it all the way from the first concept drawings, to huge scaffolded piers marching through the river, to the evolution of its beautiful curved design.
Once a year during the seasonal floods, we are able to head downstream by boat, and observe the bridge from the water at the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers.
From this angle the curvature is very obvious. (April 2021)
Back to the beginning: first, a temporary bridge to enable the construction of the actual bridge (2018)
With feats of engineering going on underwater, the first piers begin to rise up... (2019)
One year on, many more piers and a road surface define the bridge's eventual shape (2020)
A memory of the now historical ferry - leaving Botswana, crossing over to Zambia by bike (2017)
Town has been alive with Heads of State, dignitaries, military, police, motorcades and film crews, but tomorrow the bridge will be officially open to traffic, so we seriously contemplated a quick excursion over to Zamiba, to perhaps be the first motorbike to grace its brand new surface, and experience the very efficient sounding new concept One Stop border post.
However, reality struck: 2 x covid tests, 2 sets of bridge toll fees, bike insurance fees, interpol clearances, carbon tax and TIP, all seemed to take the edge off the whole impulsive plan... so this proverbial space will have to be watched again for a longer bike trip over the river sometime in the future!
7 comments:
Wow. That is quite an achievement.
That bridge is a marvel. Thank you for sharing the photos. I hope it stays up and you get a ride across in the future. Stay well.
I remember 1970. In my brother`s car we crossed a then newly built bridge to get to Zambia (from then Rhodesia). It was, however, built from both sides, not QUITE meeting in the middle, so it had to be stitched together, sort of. There was a street sign: 4 m/h !!, and as we obviously were a tiny bit faster, about 10 m/h, a policeman stopped us and yelled at us. Oh my, I truly remember it, so it must have been true. Can anyone my age verify this?
Karen, I am not unknown, I am Angela!
Wow! Amazing....and we can't even sort out our Hammersmith Bridge here in London xx
What a pleasure. We saw it being built when we visited in 2018. We went across (and back again) on the ferry. How I would love to return, the best holiday ever. I so miss Africa.
Keep well and very best wishes Diane
AMAZING xx
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