水府橋, Modern bridge in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.
The Suifu Bridge carries Ibaraki Prefectural Route 232 over the Naka River, linking Sannomaru with Suifu-cho in Mito. The current second-generation span, opened on 31 October 2013, is a six-span continuous non-composite steel box girder bridge 354.5 m long and 14.5 m wide, with a 6.5 m roadway and 3.5 m walkways on each side. It stands just downstream of the first bridge, a three-span Warren truss of steel.
The first Suifu Bridge opened in March 1932 as part of a bypass linking Mito Station to National Route 6, built in about a year by up to 300 workers a day. It was replaced downstream: construction began in fiscal 2003 and the second bridge opened on 31 October 2013, after the 1998 Naka River flood and the old bridge's narrow width made replacement necessary. The old span was dismantled, and a monument using part of its steel frame received a 2016 good design award.
The first Suifu Bridge was chosen as one of Japan's Hundred Bridges in 1988. After the old span was dismantled, a monument using part of its steel frame was installed on 30 March 2016 and won a Good Design Award that year in Ibaraki Prefecture's town-planning awards.
The bridge is well connected by public transport, with bus routes linking nearby train stations to both ends. Parking is available on both sides.
The first Suifu Bridge, completed in 1932, was built in a single year by up to 300 labourers a day, at a time when fewer than 100,000 cars existed nationwide, yet it already had separate walkways. When it was dismantled after the 2013 replacement, part of its steel frame was turned into a monument, which won a Good Design Award in 2016.
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