South Africa’s National Roads Agency (Sanral) has awarded a R1.65bn tender to a joint venture (JV) for the construction of a bridge across the Msikaba river gorge in Pondoland, Eastern Cape province.
The bridge forms part of Sanral’s N2 Wild Coast project and is the second of two bridges that will span two riverine areas.
The first bridge, across the Mtentu river closer to Pondoland’s border with KwaZulu-Natal, got under way in January.
Both bridges will reportedly set records for civil engineering; the Mtentu Bridge will be the longest cantilever bridge in Africa, at 1.1 kilometres upon completion while the Msikaba Bridge will be South Africa’s longest cable-stayed bridge.
In a statement released today, Sanral said the tender was awarded to a JV consisting of Concor (Murray & Roberts) and Mota-Engil, a Portuguese-owned multi-national company.
Construction near the town of Lusikisiki is expected to start in February and should last around 33 months till completion.
Ramp-up operations to launch work over the opposing cliff faces will get under way in October and it’s expected to take three months before actual construction can commence.
