Kafue Railway Bridge
The Kafue Railway Bridge was built in 1906 to carry the Livingstone to Lusaka railway line over the Kafue River, in what is now Zambia. It is a steel girder truss bridge of 13 spans each of 33 metres (108 ft) supported on concrete piers. It was built for Mashonaland Railways, later merged into Rhodesian Railways which operated the line from 1927 until succeeded in Zambia by Zambia Railways in 1966. With a length of 427 metres (1,398 ft) it was the longest bridge on the Rhodesian Railways.[1]
The consulting engineers were Douglas Fox and Partners[2]
1907 'LONGEST BRIDGE IN AFRICA.
An engineering achievement of more than passing interest has recently been carried through on the extension of the Cape-to-Cairo railroad through North-Western Rhodesia towards the frontier of the Congo Free State. This is the spanning of the Kafue River at practically its widest part by a magnificent steel bridge, which ranks second in importance and dimensions to that built across the Zambesi gorge just below the Victoria Falls. Whereas the latter is the highest bridge in Africa, that thrown across the more northerly waterway ranks as the longest bridge in the dark continent. The Kafue River is one of the most important tributaries of the Zambesi River, and the bridge is 1,400 ft. in length. The masonry piers each measure 18ft. in width by Bft. in thickness, and the spans, each of which are 100 ft. in length by 14ft. wide, are about 20ft. in height, the weight of each complete being fifty-six tons, giving an aggregate of 728 tons of steelwork for the whole structure. Fortunately the hed of the river was found to be of hard rock and gravel, which offered a solid foundation for the piers. A pontoon was utilised for the conveyance of the spans from the shore yard to the respective sites. This pontoon was 95ft. in length and 45ft. in width, and was hauled from one side to the other as desired by an endless cable passed across the river and carried round a drum on the north bank driven by a 24-h.p. winding-engine stationed on the south bank.'[3]
In March 1927 the thirteen girders, weighing a total of 910 tons, were raised 5ft to overcome the problem of flooding. 28 hydraulic jacks were used to raise the girders in 10" increments. Trains were allowed across after everything was secured following each incremental lift. The scheme was designed and carried out under the direction of Mr. Rigley, the bridge engineer of the Beira, Mashonaland and Rhodesian Railway. The exercise was described in detail in The Engineer [4]