Kafue Railway Bridge Explained

The Kafue Railway Bridge was built to carry the Livingstone to Lusaka railway line in what is now Zambia over the Kafue River in 1906. It is a steel girder truss bridge of 13 spans each of 33m (108feet) supported on concrete piers. It was built for Mashonaland Railways, later merged into Rhodesian Railways which operated the line from 1927[1] until succeeded in Zambia by Zambia Railways in 1966.

With a length of 427m (1,401feet) the Kafue Railway Bridge was the longest bridge on the Rhodesian Railways network.[1] It includes nearly of embankments raised about 7m (23feet) where the line crosses the river's wider rainy season channel, and a lower embankment about long where it crosses the river's the shallower floodplain to the south-west of the bridge.[2]

The town of Kafue is at the bridge's northern end and the Kafue Bridge on the T2 road is downstream.[2]

See also

History of Zambia

References

-15.7833°N 38°W

Notes and References

  1. Zambia's Second Industry. Horizon Magazine On-Line. February 1965. 21 March 2007.
  2. Web site: Google Earth. 23 March 2007. The bridge is visible at decimal latitude/longitude -15.7876, 28.1766.