New Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge has a design life of 100 years and is expected to open soon - Moore

The Fiji Roads Authority says the new Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge has a design life of 100 years and is expected to open soon.

The new bridge will accommodate two-lane traffic and one walkway for pedestrians.

FRA’s CEO Jonathan Moore says the bridge is being built with a reinforced concrete deck bridge, precast pre-stressed beams, piled foundations and engineering fill approach roads, located on the seaward side of the existing Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge.

Moore says with the projected sea-level rise due to climate change, the new Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge deck level is 1.90 metres higher than the existing bridge to protect against future damages.

He says they have taken into consideration Fiji’s climate projection such as an increase in temperature, change in rainfall patterns, sea-level rise, and they are likely to have less frequent, but more intense tropical cyclones among others.

Moore says as such, constructing weather resilient infrastructure is vital and they have taken into account the design water levels e.g. sea-level rise 0.70m due to climate change, wave height 2.2m due to storm-surge arising from cyclones and tide level deviation 1.20m.

The CEO says ensuring that current and future environmental and climate risks are incorporated into the Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge design will safeguard access to basic services and reduce vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental issues.

He adds once this new bridge is complete, all the existing foundations, sub-structures and superstructure will be demolished adding this will be in preparation for the second bridge to be built within this alignment.

The second Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge will also be a two-lane bridge which will allow four lanes between Lami and Suva corridor in the near future.