Sierra Leone is set to invest up to US$2 billion to link its capital city Freetown to its only international airport, by building a 7km bridge. An investment of US$ 2 billion will be made for building the bridge, which will not only make the traffic movement between the city and the airport swifter but also de-congest the capital. Presently, there are only two ways in which Freetown and the Lungi international airport are linked –by boat or helicopter, though they are separated only by five km wide mouth of the Rokel river. The tender process has just opened. While opening the tender, President Julius Maada Bio said that bridge would be a game changer for the economic prosperity of the country. The Lungi bridge may cost anywhere between US$ 1.3 billion US$ 2 billion. The project would take between four and five years to complete. It will be financed through a public-private partnership by introducing tolls scheme, which will enable the private bidder/s to collect tolls from the vehicles plying on the bridge. The proposed bridge project was initially to be financed by the state-funded Chinese firm Power China International. Earlier, the plan was to build a new $400 million airport closer to the capital with Chinese labor and loans, which later was given up.
