After more than seven years of planning and construction, the brand-new Ashton Arch Bridge over Cogmanskloof River in the Western Cape was finally completed on August 14.
The bridge weighs 7 260 metric tonnes, boasts five 15.5m overhead wishbone beams, and is 22m tall. It has four 3.4m traffic lanes and two 2.4m sidewalks.
The old Ashton bridge was occasionally flooded by the Cogmanskloof River below, which posed a problem for the 7 000 vehicles passing through Ashton every day. The new Ashton Arch Bridge, a project estimated to cost R81m (€4.6m) in 2016, is high enough to accommodate the river at full flood.
Click here to watch the video of some of the bridge’s construction ahead of its official launch.
