The First Road-Rail Bridge of Sri Lanka at Manampitiya (මනම්පිටිය පැරණි පාලම)

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Road-Rail bridges are bridges shared by trains as well as motor vehicles. These can be as complex as rail road going over or under the paved vehicle road to as simple as a railway line running on the center of road.

Sri Lanka has the distinction of having 2 unique road-rail bridges in the early 20th century. The first one was built at Manampitiya over the Mahaweli River in 1922 connecting  North Central Province with Batticaloa  and the second such road-rail bridge was  Oddamavadi Bridge (also known as the Valachchanai Bridge) built in 1924 across the Valaichchenai lagoon in the eastern province.

The Manampitiya road-rail Bridge is completely built from iron and spans 296 meters across the Mahaweli River. The bridge is the only access point between Eastern Province and Central Province for about 80 km of the river.

Manampitiya Road-Rail Bridge is a fairly long but a narrow bridge. The width of the bridge is approximately 4.5 meters and the rail road is built in the center of the bridge. The great Mahaweli River runs over 50 meters below the Bridge. But during heavy rain, the water level of the river climbs above the bridge level flooding the whole area of Manampitiya.

Being such a narrow bridge, there is no room for two vehicles to pass, so any vehicle crossing the bridge have to wait till all the traffic passes on the opposite direction. But the most significance feature of this bridge is the railway track running right on the center of the road. So if you are unlucky enough, this was one of the only 2 places in Sri Lanka where your vehicle can come face to face with a train with nowhere to go. But fortunately this bridge was manned by the Sri Lankan Army and two army check points on both sides controlled both rail and motor vehicle traffic.

This marvel served the Sri Lankan motorists for over 85 year and in 2007, a new bridge was constructed in parallel for motor traffic. At the time of opening, it was the longest bridge in Sri Lanka with a length of 302 meters and a width of 10.4 meters.

Since then first road-rail in Sri Lanka was converted back to being a plain old railway bridge.

Also See

• Attractions of Sri Lanka
• Heritage of Sri Lanka
• Waterfalls of Sri Lanka
• Nature and Wildlife of Sri Lanka
• Other Places of Interest Within Close Proximity

Map of  the Manampitiya Road-Rail Bridge

Traveling Directions to Manampitiya Road-Rail Bridge