Akinada Bridge, Steel suspension bridge in Kure, Japan.
The Akinada Bridge is a steel suspension bridge connecting Honshu to Shimo-kamagari Island across the Seto Inland Sea. Its design features steel cables suspended from tall towers that support a wide deck accommodating multiple lanes of traffic.
Built as part of the Akinada Tobishima Kaido project linking the Akinada islands by eight bridges, the Akinada Bridge was completed in 1999 and opened to traffic on 18 January 2000. It is the only tolled bridge of the group, nicknamed Akinada Bridge No. 1, and won both the 1999 Zenken Award and the JSCE Tanaka Prize. Construction cost about 50 billion yen.
The bridge is nicknamed Akinada No. 1 Bridge, the first of eight crossings in the Akinada Tobishima Kaido island-linking project and the only tolled one. Since April 2012, Kure has subsidised return tolls for shoppers who spend at least 1,000 yen at designated facilities on the islands. Islanders use it as a daily lifeline, and high tolls have been debated in the Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly and Kure City Council.
The toll booth sits on the Honshu side at Kawajiri, Kure, and has no ETC lane, so pay in cash. Pedestrians and cyclists cross free of charge, and the deck carries a 2 m walkway on each side. The span is 1,175 m long with a 40 m clearance over the shipping channel.
The bridge's 750 m main span is asymmetric: 255 m on the Honshu side and 170 m on the Shimo-kamagari side, because the towers sit on the small rocky islet of Meneko-jima and right at the shoreline. The strait below, Meneko-seto, is a fishing ground for wild sea bream, so no pier stands in the water.
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