Shin-Onomichi Bridge, Cable-stayed bridge in Onomichi, Japan.
Shin-Onomichi Bridge is a cable-stayed road bridge over the Onomichi Channel, linking the city of Onomichi on Honshu to Mukaishima island. Two tall towers painted in a warm honey tone hold the cables that support a four-lane roadway.
The bridge was built in the late 1990s to relieve traffic pressure on the older Onomichi Bridge nearby. It opened in 1999 and quickly took on most of the vehicle flow between Honshu and Mukaishima.
The bridge is part of the Nishiseto Expressway, a route that links several islands across the Seto Inland Sea and is commonly called the Shimanami Kaidō. Drivers passing over it get a clear view of the water below and the scattered islands in the distance.
The bridge is accessible from the Sanyo Expressway and sits along National Route 317, so it is straightforward to reach by car. There is no pedestrian lane on the bridge itself, but nearby viewpoints offer a good look at the structure from the shore.
Inside the steel beams, a dehumidification system continuously pumps dry air to stop rust from forming on the inner surfaces. This approach had not been used in Japanese bridge construction before this project.
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