October 12, 2018
An inaugural ceremony was held for a two-lane road vehicular bridge in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste about a month after this structure had been opened to traffic. Timor-Leste (also known as East Timor) is a Southeast Asian country that encompasses the eastern half of the island of Timor; the exclave, municipality, and special administrative region of Oecusse, which is mostly surrounded by Indonesia within western portion of Timor; and the islands of Atauro and Jaco at the confluence of the Banda Sea and Timor Sea. The capital and largest city of Timor-Leste is Dili, which is on the northeastern coast of Timor.
The box girder bridge officially opened on October 12, 2018, is based in the suco (village) of Comoro, a western suburb of Dili, and it spans the Comoro River. This bridge was built by the Japanese company Tobishima Corporation. The Japanese government provided funding via the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the bridge’s construction, and a consortium consisting of Nippon Engineering Consultants Company, Ltd. Ingérosec Corporation, and Idea Consultants, Inc., served as a consultant for the project. Construction on the bridge began in 2016.
During its inauguration, this structure was formally named Hinode Bridge. (“Hinode” is the Japanese phrase for “rising sun.”) The public officials attending the ceremony included Taur Matan Ruak, prime minister of Timor-Leste; Tarō Kōno, Japanese minister for foreign affairs; José Agustinho da Silva, Timor-Leste’s minister of transport and communications; and Salvador Eugénio Soares dos Reis Pires, Timor-Leste’s minister of public works.
The Hinode Bridge has a total length of 820 feet (250 meters). Each of the bridge’s lanes is 11 feet (3.5 meters) in width. In addition, there is a footpath on each side of this structure. The Hinode Bridge serves as a link between Banana Road on the east bank of the river and National Highway 3 at the west end.
Photo Credit: Bahnfrend (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bahnfrend) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
For more information on the Hinode Bridge, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinode_Bridge
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