President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will open the new Kelani Bridge (Golden Gate Kalyani), the first high-tech cable-suspended bridge in Sri Lanka, this afternoon (24).
This bridge features a cable support system that distributes the weight of the deck between two towers. The deck is hung on vertical suspender cables and the main cables, suspended between towers, are connected to the anchorages at each end of the bridge.
This bridge was constructed with funds from the Sri Lankan Government and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The six-lane bridge, which aims to ease the traffic congestion in Colombo and suburban areas, is the first-ever to be constructed in Sri Lanka with hi-tech stay cables.
Mahinda Rajapaksa as the President and Minister of Highways prepared the preliminary plans for 2012 and completed the feasibility study in 2013. In 2014, agreements were signed for the construction of the new Kelani Bridge using Sri Lanka’s first high-tech cables.
The length of the bridge section across the Kelani River is 380 meters.
“Golden Gate Kalyani” was built under two phases. Under the first phase, Rs. 31,539 million was spent for the construction of steel bridge section. The concrete suspension bridge section was constructed under the second phase costing a sum of Rs. 9,896 million.
This was constructed under Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funding.