Maputo, Mozambique, 30 April – A new bridge currently under construction on Mozambique’s Zambezi River will be finished on schedule, despite work on the project being delayed earlier this year due to severe floods, a company source has said.

An executive from Portuguese construction consortium Mota-Engil and Soares da Costa said the new bridge would be finished within the deadline agreed the Maputo government if there are no further holdups. Construction work is proceeding “satisfactorily”, he added.

Work on the bridge was held up for 45 days because of the heavy flooding in the Zambezi Valley early in 2007.

The Zambezi bridge, 2,443 meters long and 16 meters wide with four lanes, will carry Mozambique’s main north-south highway link across the country’s largest water course.

The bridge’s second support tower was fixed in position last week and the construction’s sixth tower is expected to be put into position in the first half of May. (macauhub)