Mefuki Ōhashi Bridge, Road bridge between Bando and Noda, Japan

The Mefuki Ōhashi Bridge carries the Tsukuba-Noda route (Ibaraki/Chiba prefectural road 3) across the Tone River between Meinohashi in Bandō, Ibaraki, and Mefuki in Noda, Chiba. Its road deck is a steel through-truss bridge of six spans, 535.9 m long and 7 m wide with two lanes. A separate pedestrian-only truss bridge of six spans stands just downstream.

The bridge opened on 24 December 1958 as a toll crossing managed by the Japan Highway Public Corporation, planned by Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures. On 30 October 1968 management passed to the two prefectures and the toll was abolished. A separate pedestrian bridge was added on the downstream side on 12 March 1985.

The bridge links the hamlets of Mefuki in Noda, Chiba, and Mushirochi in Bandō, Ibaraki; the name Mefuki is written with characters for sprouting buds. Its opening let growers around the former Iwai town ship lettuce and Chinese cabbage to the Tokyo market, and the fields along the Ibaraki bank still carry that trade.

The road bridge carries two lanes in each direction; pedestrians cross on a separate dedicated footbridge built just downstream in 1985, not on the roadway itself. The span is 535.9 m long and 7 m wide. Chronic congestion persists because the nearest alternative crossings, Shinshintone and Shimōsa-Tone, are far away.

The bridge originally operated as a toll crossing but was later converted to free passage. This shift fundamentally changed travel patterns and made trips between the prefectures more accessible to many people.