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]
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 [3]