View of Sky Gate Bridge R from Kansai international airport

, also known as the , serves as a link between the mainland of

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to the

artificial island An artificial island is an island that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means. Artificial islands may vary in size from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of a building or structure to those tha ...

Osaka Bay Osaka Bay (大阪湾 ''Ōsaka-wan'' ) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait. ...

on which

Kansai International Airport Kansai International Airport ( ja, 関西国際空港, Kansai Kokusai Kūkō) commonly known as is the primary international airport in the Greater Osaka Area of Japan and the closest international airport to the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and K ...

is built. It is the longest double-decked truss bridge in the world. The bridge carries six lanes of automobile traffic on top and two of rail below, over nine truss spans.

Structural specifications

The Sky Gate Bridge is a

continuous truss bridge A continuous truss bridge is a truss bridge which extends without hinges or joints across three or more supports. A continuous truss bridge may use less material than a series of simple trusses because a continuous truss distributes live loads ...

that measures long, wide (6 lanes), and at its highest point in the center.

History

The bridge commenced construction in June 1987, and was completed in March 1994. On 21 April 2009, management of the expressway portion of the bridge was handed over to the

West Nippon Expressway Company The , abbreviated as , is one of the main operators of expressways and toll roads in Japan. It is headquartered on the 19th floor of Dojima Avanza in Kita-ku, Osaka. The company was established on October 1, 2005, as a result of the privatization o ...

. This expressway was numbered E71 alongside the

Kansai-Kūkō Expressway The (lit. Kansai Airport Expressway) is a 4-laned national expressway in Izumisano, Osaka, Japan. It is owned and operated by West Nippon Expressway Company. Route description The expressway is a short connector route linking the Sky Gate Bri ...

in 2016.

Typhoon Jebi

The bridge was damaged on 4 September 2018 by Typhoon Jebi. A 2600-ton tanker lost power and was blown into one side, severely damaging half of the automobile lanes and the rail lines. The bridge, being the sole link between the airport and the mainland, stranded approximately passengers and staff overnight at the airport. They were evacuated the next day via the

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

to nearby

Kobe Airport is an airport on an artificial island just off the coast of Kobe, south of Sannomiya StationAIS Japan
Osaka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture ...

. The sequence of kilometer posts continue from the

References

{{West_Nippon_Expressway_Company 1991 establishments in Japan Bridges completed in 1991 Bridges in Osaka Prefecture Roads in Osaka Prefecture Railway bridges in Japan Truss bridges Road-rail bridges in Japan Double-decker bridges