New bridge to span Zambezi River and link Zambia and Botswana

Work is starting on a new bridge that will span the Zambezi River and link Zambia with Botswana. The bridge will be located at Kazungula and will carry both road and rail connections. The structure will be some 923m long and the project is expected to cost in the region of US$200 million, with work including the construction of access roads as well as the border posts on either side of the Zambezi River. This new link will replace the existing ferry connection, improving transportation between Zambia and Botswana, providing an important trade route and helping boost economic development in Southern Africa as a whole. The new bridge will also help the transport of materials and equipment both to and from Zambia’s key copper mining industry, a cornerstone of its economy. Kazungula is in Zambia’s Southern Province and is also close to the country’s borders with Namibia and Zimbabwe. The nearest existing bridge crossings of the Zambezi River are 70km downstream between Zimbabwe and Zambia and 150km upstream between Namibia and Zambia. There is however no direct link between Namibia and Zimbabwe and there are no plans at present to construct one.

The two pontoon type ferries currently crossing the Zambezi River at Kazungula have capacities of 70tonnes, the largest in Africa, but a lack of a weighbridge to check vehicle weights using these was blamed for a fatal incident that killed 18 in 2003 when an overloaded truck is thought to have caused one of the ferries to capsize. The shifting river conditions make the ferry crossing tricky and an agreement to build the bridge was first made between the four countries back in 2000. Funding for the project is being delivered jointly by the 1586 African Development Bank (AFDB), and 2416 Japan International Cooperation Agency, as well as the governments of Zambia and Botswana.