The Beca-designed Rewa Bridge is the first structure of this type to be attempted in the Pacific Islands. The construction process was complex and required considerable attention to detail.
Rewa Bridge supports the main island ring road across the Rewa River, and is a vital link to Suva airport and King’s Wharf in Fiji. The 425m long bridge carries four lanes of traffic and two pedestrian footpaths.
Assisted by European Development Bank funding, in 2002 the Public Works Department awarded the contract to construct the new bridge to major New Zealand contractor Fletcher Construction. Fletcher engaged Beca as its designer for the project.
The bridge design is a single cell incrementally launched concrete box girder, with spans of 49.5m. This design enabled production of a high quality product in near factory conditions, and also resulted in considerable programme savings as river piling and superstructure construction operations could run concurrently.
Rewa Bridge is the first structure of this type to be attempted in the Pacific Islands. The construction process was complex and required considerable attention to detail. Additional challenges included:
- difficult founding conditions. The site geology comprised deep weak alluvial materials overlying competent sedimentary bedrock, and was subject to seismic shaking
- the requirement for materials to be sourced locally, meaning forward planning for almost every aspect of the project was needed
- a largely unskilled labour force, who required considerable training in even the most fundamental tasks.
To undertake this form of construction in Fiji, with its under-developed construction infrastructure, significantly increased the project complexity. The bridge opened in 2006 to great enthusiasm from the local community and high praise from the client, Government of Fiji and the European Commission.
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