【Introduction of the project】
The area where the Kelani River New Bridge Construction Project was implemented is located in the northern part of Sri Lanka’s largest city, Colombo, and includes national highway A01, which connects the city center with Kandy, the second largest city, Colombo Port access road, and national highway A03, which leads to Bandaranaike International Airport which led to traffic being concentrated on the existing bridge, causing traffic congestion in the surrounding area to be a problem.
This project is a STEP project funded by the Japanese government’s ODA to construct a new bridge over the Kelani River and an elevated access road connecting to it, with the main aim of dispersing traffic and improving traffic congestion in the surrounding area.
The Package 2 section involves the Superstructure and Substructure construction of a 1,185m total span bridge project including a 625m approach bridge with 3 lanes each for the inbound and outbound lanes, 380m main bridge crossing the Kelani River and 180m approach road.
The main bridge over the Kelani River, which experi-ences frequent flooding, has a longer span and piers on both banks to reduce the impact on the river.
Furthermore, in order to ac-commodate the long span and to serve as a gateway from the airport to Colombo after its completion, the country’s first extradosed bridge with a symbolic tower shape was ad-opted.
The completed bridge was named “Golden Gate Kalyani Bridge” and a grand opening ceremony was held on Novem-ber 24, 2021.
As the name suggests, it is popular as a gateway from the airport to Colombo City and is recognized as a new landmark in the surrounding area.