Hiroshima Airport Bridge
Hiroshima Airport Bridge
JapaneseName
Numata River Bridge
JapaneseName
Hiroshima, Japan
640 feet high / 195 meters high
1,247 foot span / 380 meter span
2010
Image by Japanese Bridge Association.
Upon its opening in 2010, the Hiroshima Airport bridge became the highest bridge ever built in Japan, surpassing the Kokonoe "Yume" Otsurihashi footbridge built just three years earlier in Oita prefecture. The arch is part of a new 19 mile (30 km) Central Flight highway that will connect the new 1993-built Hiroshima airport to highway 184 - a major route in the region.
Bookended by two mountain tunnels, the massive 1,247 foot (380 meter) long arch spans 640 feet (195 meters) above the Numata River. The main arch was constructed using the stayed cantilever method whereby a tower is erected on either side of the gorge and cables temporarily radiate out from it to support individual sections of the arch until the two halves can be joined in the middle. A cable highline between the tops of the two towers was used to move the steel sections into place high above the river. It is the longest arch of any kind ever built in Japan. Corrosion resistant steel was used to avoid the difficulty of repainting the bridge in the future.
Hiroshima Airport Bridge Elevation
The massive scale of the arch can be seen from the small-looking maintenance stairs.
Image by Japanese Bridge Association.
Image by Japanese Bridge Association.
Construction plan showing the highline towers 1,640 feet (500 meters) apart. Image by Japanese Bridge Association.
Temporary cable stay construction plan. Image by Japanese Bridge Association.
Image by Japanese Bridge Association.
Hiroshima Airport Bridge satellite view.
Hiroshima Airport Bridge satellite view. The southern tunnel goes under the edge of the airport golf course.
