Tatara Bridge

Tatara Bridge

Tatara Bridge resembles a giant green dragon, spanning the beautiful Seto Inland Sea and connecting Ikuchi Island in Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, with Oshima Island in Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture. The bridge was opened to traffic on May 1, 1999. With a main span of 890 meters, it was once the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world. Including its approach roads, the total length is 1,480 meters, featuring four lanes for vehicles and dedicated paths for pedestrians and bicycles. It is part of Japan’s National Route 317.

Japan is a country prone to typhoons and earthquakes, so Tatara Bridge had to meet very high standards for wind and seismic resistance—specifically designed to withstand winds of around 52 m/s and the most severe earthquakes. Additionally, because the side spans of the bridge are relatively short while the central span is long, a hybrid construction method was used: the side spans are made of prestressed concrete, and the central span is a steel truss, achieving a balance in the weight of the bridge structure. The total investment in Tatara Bridge was approximately 1.1 billion US dollars, which meant exceptionally high quality requirements during construction. Each small phase of work had to undergo precise measurement and inspection by the project owner. To accurately determine the weight of each section of the steel truss, actual weighing was required for the bridge—whereas typical engineering projects rely solely on calculated weights from design drawings without factoring in changes due to welding or painting. Moreover, the installation tilt precision for the main towers had to be controlled within 1/5000 after erection.

Tatara Bridge

Must-visit reason: One of the world’s longest cable-stayed bridges

Continent where the attraction is located: Asia [Asia]

Country/region where the attraction is located: Japan [Japan]

Province/state where the attraction is located: Hiroshima and Ehime Prefectures [Hiroshima and Ehime Prefecture]