The Barito Bridge (Jembatan Barito) is a 3,506 feet (1.07 kilometers) long, single decked, multi-span

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

South Kalimantan South Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Selatan) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is the smallest province in Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory of Borneo. The provincial capital was Banjarmasin until 15 February 2022 when it wa ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

that spans the Barito River. It is the longest suspension bridge in Indonesia and a major tourist attraction. The bridge serves as the direct link between the rural communities of Central Kalimantan to the urban center of Banjarmasin.

History

Construction of the bridge began in 1994. It was completed 4 years later in 1997. It was inaugurated by Indonesia's second president,

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...

. The bridge is still in use as of 2022, and remains the longest suspension bridge in Indonesia, a record that was noted in the Museum Rekor Indonesia.

Geography

The bridge is located in

province, in

Barito Kuala Regency Barito Kuala Regency is one of the regencies (''kabupaten'') in the Indonesian province of South Kalimantan. The area is 2,996.46 km2, and the population at the 2010 Census was 276,147; the latest official estimate (as at mid 2019) is 313,59 ...

, on the island of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

in the

Indonesian Archipelago The islands of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian Archipelago ( id, Kepulauan Indonesia) or Nusantara, may refer either to the islands comprising the country of Indonesia or to the geographical groups which include its islands. History ...

. It carries the

Trans-Kalimantan Highway Southern Route The Trans-Kalimantan Highway Southern Route ( id, Jalan Lintas Kalimantan Poros Selatan), or simply the Trans-Kalimantan Highway, ( id, Jalan Lintas Kalimantan, links=no) is a national road that forms the backbone highway system in Kalimantan ...

across the Barito River and Bakut Island about 22.6 miles (36.5 kilometers) north of where the river empties into the

Java Sea The Java Sea ( id, Laut Jawa, jv, Segara Jawa) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its nort ...

Structure

The bridge has three main spans across the Barito River and Bakut Island, with a total length of 3,506 feet (1.07 kilometers). The main span is 787.4 feet (240 meters) long. The piers are made of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

, and the pylons and deck truss are made of steel, fabricated in Australia and then shipped to the site. The bridge is one of the only in the world to use a dual asymmetric cable arrangement.

Tourism

Being Indonesia's longest suspension bridge, it is an important tourist attraction in the region. There is also significant tourism demand on Bakut Island under the bridge, where

proboscis monkey The proboscis monkey (''Nasalis larvatus'') or long-nosed monkey is an arboreal Old World monkey with an unusually large nose, a reddish-brown skin color and a long tail. It is endemic to the southeast Asian island of Borneo and is found mostly ...

s can be seen.

Future

The government of

has invested significant money into further popularizing the bridge and its surrounding area as a destination. There are plans to build Barito Regions Park, the proposed model featuring a family amusement park and onsite hotel.

References

{{coord missing, Indonesia Bridges in Indonesia Suspension bridges Bridges completed in 1997 Road bridges in Asia