For R$ 1.09 billion, Braga’s bridge is more expensive than China’s

Paula Litaiff – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The price per kilometer of the bridge over the Negro River, with 3,595 meters, was twice as expensive as the bridge in Hangzhou Bay, China, considered one of the largest in the world, with 36 thousand meters, according to news from the newspaper Diário do Amazonas, published in November 2009, during the administration of the then governor Eduardo Braga, today, senator and candidate to the Amazonas Government.

According to information from the international press, the price of the Chinese bridge, quoted by the Diário newspaper, when it was inaugurated on May 1, 2008, was valued at US$ 1.78 billion (dollars), or R$ 2.94 billion (reais) at the exchange rate of the time. Or about R$ 81.7 million per kilometer, with 30% of the funds coming from private enterprise.

The bridge over the Negro River, by 2009, had already cost R$ 861 million and each kilometer cost, on average, R$ 215.2 million, all paid for with public funds.

Structural differences

Details were highlighted of the other bridge, at the time: the Chinese bridge has six lanes of traffic, against only four of the Rio Negro bridge; the Chinese bridge was made to resist salt erosion, winds and strong sea waves, which does not occur with the Rio Negro bridge.

According to engineering agencies, the Rio Negro bridge is considered the largest cable-stayed bridge in Brazil. Its construction consumed 20 thousand tons of steel, more than one and a half million bags of cement, 47 thousand cubic meters of sand-sand base and 72 thousand tons of bituminous coating.

Official report

This is a structure that, according to an official report released by the Government of Amazonas at the inauguration in 2011, cost R$ 1.099 billion – of which, R$ 513 million were paid by the Government of Amazonas and R$ 586 million funded by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).

In 2017, in a social network, Braga said that the additives that increased the price of the Rio Negro Bridge from R$574,826,098.12 to over R$1.09 billion were in the government of his former vice-governor and, also, senator Omar Aziz (PSD). Omar rebutted and said that when he took over the government in April 2010, already found all additives forwarded, discussed and approved by the government of Braga.

Chinese bridge

The Hangzhou Bay Bridge is one of the largest cable-stayed bridges spanning the bay of Hangzhou, on China’s east coast. The bridge is 36,000 meters long.

The bridge connects two important economic centers in China: Shanghai and Ningbo in Zhejiang province. It will reduce the distance between the two cities by 120 kilometers, as well as the travel time by car, which will drop from four to two hours. It was opened to traffic on May 1st, 2008.

This bridge underwent several feasibility studies and was finally approved in 2003. The original plan was for the bridge to start from Jinshan, a suburb of Shanghai. After objections were raised by the Shanghai municipal government, however, it was moved to the southern territory of Zhejiang Province. It cuts the distance from Shanghai to Ningbo.

Whereas previously the journey from Ningbo and Shanghai involved a detour of approximately 400 kilometers (249 miles), the bridge reduces the distance to 80 kilometers (50 miles), a reduction of 320 kilometers (199 miles). The result is that Ningbo, with its port at Beilun, will be able to compete with Shanghai’s international sea freight port Pudong.