SURAMADU BRIDGE

The Suramadu Bridge (Indonesian: Jembatan Suramadu), also known as the Surabaya–Madura Bridge, is a bridge with three cable-stayed sections constructed between Surabaya on the island of Java and the town of Bangkalan on the island of Madura in Indonesia. Opened on June 10, 2009, the 5.4-km bridge is the longest in Indonesia and the first bridge to cross the Madura Strait.

The bridge was built by a consortium of Indonesian companies PT Adhi Karya and PT Waskita Karya working with China Road and Bridge Corp. and China Harbor Engineering Co. Ltd. The total cost of the project, including connecting roads, has been estimated at 4.5 trillion rupiah (US$445 million).

Construction was started on August 20, 2003. In July 2004, a girder collapsed, killing one worker and injuring nine others. Work on the bridge halted at the end of 2004 due to lack of funds, but was restarted in November 2005. The main span of the bridge was connected on March 31, 2009, and the bridge was opened to the public in June 10, 2009. Within a week of the opening, it was discovered that nuts and bolts as well as maintenance lamps had been stolen and that there was evidence of vandalism of cables supporting the main span.

The cable-stayed portion has three spans with lengths 192 m, 434 m and 192 m. The bridge has two lanes in each direction plus an emergency lane and a dedicated lane for motorcycles. The first toll bridge in Indonesia, fares have been initially set at Rp. 30,000 (US$3 in 2009) for four-wheeled vehicles and Rp. 3,000 (US$0.30) for two-wheelers.

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