Built in 1905, iconic Victoria Falls bridge ‘remains structurally sound, safe’

By Staff Reporter

THE company responsible for the management of the Victoria Falls Bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia have said the iconic facility, now 119 years old, remains structurally safe.

A brainchild of British imperialist and businessman Cecil John Rhodes, the bridge comprises a railway, road and a footpath. It links the two countries and has border posts on the approaches to both ends, at the towns of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and Livingstone, Zambia.

The facility is managed by Emerged Railways Properties (ERP) which is jointly owned by the National Railways of Zimbabwe and the Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL).

In a statement this week, ERP said the bridge’s “structural integrity remained safe for usage for all approved purposes”.

The company carries said it has a “strict bridge maintenance programme” that included “principal inspection is undertaken every five years”.

“ERP (assures) all stakeholders and users of the bridge that the facility remains structurally sound, safe and thus also economically viable,” the company said.

“The life expectancy of the bridge is in fact estimated at no less than 200 years from the year of construction in 1905 which implies that its life expectancy now still stands at well over 100 years, subject of course, to continuing the rigid maintenance regime which ERP ensures is implemented without deviation.”

The latest principal inspection was undertaken by Ramboll, a Denmark-based structural engineering firm.

Part of Ramboll’s report reads; “As documented in the present report, the Victoria Falls bridge is generally very healthy, and the current maintenance schedule is sufficient for securing the durability.

“When the items listed in the summary above are taken care of, and the good maintenance practice continues, we assume a service life of the main structures of 200 years from the original construction, that is until 2105.”

Victoria Falls Bridge was part of Rhodes’ grand and unfulfilled Cape to Cairo railway. Rhodes is recorded as instructing the engineers to “build the bridge across the Zambezi where the trains, as they pass, will catch the spray of the Falls”.

The bridge was prefabricated in England before being shipped to the port city of Beira in Portuguese-ruled Mozambique, and then transported on the newly constructed railway to the Victoria Falls. It took just 14 months to construct and was completed in 1905.