| Godavari Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Carries | South Central Railway Line, Rajahmundry-Kovvur Road |
| Crosses | Godavari River |
| Locale | Rajahmundry |
| Design | Truss Bridge |
| Total length | 4.25 kilometres (2.64 mi) |
| Longest span | 97.5 metres (320 ft) |
The Kovvur-Rajahmundry Bridge or simply, the Godavari Bridge is a Truss Bridge crossing the river Godavari in Rajahmundry, India. It is Asia's second longest road-cum-rail bridge crossing a water body, after Japan's Kansai International Airport Sky Gate Bridge.
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Constructed over a quarter of a century ago in the 1970s, this bridge is a modern day engineering feat. The bridge was constructed by Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam Limited[1]. The bridge is fit for 120 km/h (75 mph) rail services. It was commissioned by South Central Railway of India. This bridge links East and West Godavari districts of state Andhra Pradesh.
The Chennai-Howrah railway line was single track until the 1960s when the government planned to double the track to relieve railway loads and the increase in passenger counts. Most of the route had been doubled except for the Vijayawada - Visakhapatnam sector where a bridge about 3 km long was required to lay the double track over the Godavari River near Rajahmundry. In 1964, the construction of the second bridge was sanctioned by the government. There was also a demand from the public to construct a road link from Rajahmundry to Kovvur. Thus, the government agreed to sanction the construction of a road -cum- rail bridge. The bridge was completed by the mid 1970s[2]. This completed the double track railway. The bridge served the railways along with the Old Godavari Bridge until 1997, when the Old Godavari Bridge was retired and was replaced by the Godavari Arch Bridge
The bridge has a road deck over the single track rail deck, similar to the Grafton Bridge in New South Wales, Australia.
The Old Godavari Bridge or the Havelock Bridge was built in 1900 by Sir Arthur Cotton, now decommissioned, this bridge has 56 spans and is 2754 m long. It was constructed with stone masonry and steel girders and certainly a marvel of British engineering. The New Godavari Bridge was made as a substitute for it.
Godavari Arch Bridge is the newest bridge constructed among the three. Constructed by the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), this bridge is a modern day engineering feat. The bridge is made of bow string girder arches. The bridge is fit for 350 km/h rail services. The bridge was opened for rail traffic in 2003.