Final design of Kazungula bridge ready for approval

Plans should be finalised
in April for the more than
R1.34-billion Kazungula
Bridge linking Botswana
and Zambia. It will replace
the notoriously unreliable
Kazungula pontoon ferry
across the 400-metre-wide
Zambezi River.
In August 2007 the
governments of Zambia and
Botswana announced a deal
to construct a bridge at the
site to replace the ferry, and
the draft final report was
submitted on December 15
last year.
According to a progress
report from the Southern
African Development
Community (SADC)
forwarded to FTW by
Barney Curtis, executive
officer of the Federation
of Eastern and Southern
African Road Transport
Associations (Fesarta), the
final detailed design report
is ready to be considered
and approved by the second
week of April – and the
donors’ conference due to
be staged by May.
The new bridge will
replace the extremely
unreliable ferry operation
currently serviced by two
70-tonne capacity motorised
pontoons operating
between the border posts
at Kazungula, Zambia and
Kasane, Botswana – and
reckoned to be one of the
largest ferries in southcentral
Africa.
It’s a geographically
pivotal point on the map of
Southern Africa, with the
territory of four countries
(Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Botswana, and Namibia)
coming within a few metres
of meeting at the common
point of Kazungula.
It is also pivotal from a
road transport point of view.
The Kazungula ferry/
bridge location links the
Livingstone-Sesheke road
(which connects to the
Trans-Caprivi Highway at
Katima Mulilo and forms
part of the Walvis Bay
Corridor) to the main northsouth
highway of Botswana
through Francistown and
Gaborone to SA, and also
to the Kasane-Victoria Falls
road through Zimbabwe. It
serves the international road
traffic of three countries
directly (Zambia, Zimbabwe
and Botswana) and of three
more indirectly (Namibia,
SA and DR Congo).
The bridge design
configuration is “extra
dosed” low cable stayed and
the estimated construction
period is 48 months.
According to Curtis, the
border facilities will be onestop
border posts (OSBP)
– in line with the regional
guidelines in the SADC
Protocol on total cost
management (TCM).
Funding is to be through
sovereign loans, and – after
construction and three to
five years of operation to
assess the traffic levels
– it will then be decided
whether to go for a lease or
concession.