Kinka Bridge, Modern rigid-frame bridge in Matsue and Sakaiminato, Japan.
Kinka Bridge is a steel five-span continuous box-girder bridge over the Nagara River in Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, linking Shimosinmachi to Hayadahigashimachi. It carries a city road, the Honmachi-Uchikoshi line, on a deck 301.60 m long and 18.80 m wide, with spans of 50.0, 62.5, 75.6, 62.5 and 50.0 m. Four wall-type piers and two semi-gravity abutments stand on caisson foundations up to 25 m deep.
The bridge was planned from 1946 as part of Gifu's war-damage reconstruction, and a citizens' committee began campaigning for it in 1952. Construction started in 1961 and the bridge opened on 26 October 1964, a year ahead of schedule, to serve the 1965 Gifu National Sports Festival. It was widened and refurbished in 1999–2000.
The bridge carries the name Kinka, shared with the Kinka district on its left bank, and forms part of Kinka Bridge Street, the route running from JR Gifu Station to Gifu North Police Station. Each year in early August the Gifu Nagaragawa Fireworks Festival is held on the river between Nagarabashi downstream and Kinka Bridge upstream.
Kinka Bridge carries the city road Honmachi-Uchikoshi Line over the Nagara River between Shimoshin-machi and Hayata-Higashi-machi in Gifu. The south end at Kinkabashi-Minami is a T-junction: the second eastbound lane runs straight through all day, so every vehicle turning left onto the bridge must use the first lane. The footbridge at the south approach was removed at the end of 2023.
The bridge carried Japan's first reversible-lane system from December 1971: on weekday mornings two southbound lanes became three, and on weekday evenings two northbound lanes became three. The measure was suspended on 11 October 2011 and abolished on 1 April 2013, leaving two lanes in each direction all day.
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