Komo Bridge

The Komo Bridge is built along the main commercial route leading to the capital of the country, Libreville, where half of Gabon’s population is concentrated. The structure crosses the Komo river and replaces a previous viaduct that has become impracticable. Through the modernization of the road network, the Republic of Gabon wants to promote the diversification of the economy of the country and to develop tourism and agriculture.

This arch bridge renews a bridge over the Komo River, the main way to transport local goods. The bridge was originally built between 1973 and 1975 with an overall length of 378 meters (25+41*8+25): in February 2012 a pillar of the bridge has been damaged due to an accidental collision with a barge, also affecting the position of the deck and causing serious problems to traffic and to the commercial network.

The project aimed to both increase the width and the height from the water surface to ease the transit of boats, therefore the damaged pile and the two adjacent spans in prestressed concrete have been demolished and replaced with a 80 meters long single-span arch bridge, with a reticular truss at variable heights. The structure has total weight of 507 tons and rests on two new piles, each one consisting of four poles connected to each other with steel beams of 2 meters height.