PONT MAPUTO - CATEMBE

The Transmaritimo ferry that linked Maputo to Catembe is no more. The huge bridge that spans the bay of Maputo, between the capital and Catembe, was finally inaugurated in 2018, after four years of work. The idea for this bridge was born in the aftermath of the civil war in the 1990s, but its realization required a lot of consultation, time and heavy financing ($726 million). A Chinese bank, the China Exim-Bank, financed 85% of the project with a 20-year loan. The idea is not only to relieve congestion in the capital city, but also to create pleasant new seaside and residential suburbs right across from the center and the lower town. Catembe has great potential for development: with only 20,000 inhabitants at present, the city could see an urbanization of up to 400,000 people in the coming decade. The bridge is also part of the new South Africa-Mozambique axis that passes through Kosy Bay and Ponta do Ouro, which is designed for tourism development. This means that it is no longer necessary to go through Swaziland or the Johannesburg-Maputo route to enter Mozambique from the south, as it is now possible to drive along the coast from Durban and enter from the southern tip. The brand new 130 km Ponta-Maputo road, which has just been inaugurated, is also the result. The suspension bridge is 680 m long - now the longest in Africa - and 60 m high, while the northern viaduct is about 1 km long and is connected to the new Ponta road.