Railway Bascule Bridge ‘Suehiro Kyoryo’

The ‘Suehiro Kyoryo’ that spans the Chitose Canal in Yokkaichi City, Mie Prefecture, is a cantilever beam-type railway bascule bridge with a length of 58 m. It was completed in December 1931 and is the only railway movable bridge still in service. Thanks to the use of a dogleg link balancing device, the power required is kept constant irrespective of the angle of the moving bridge beam, and further it is devised to reduce the required power compared with previous moving bridges. Utaro Yamamoto (Yamamoto Engineering Works Co., Ltd.) designed and manufactured the bridge. The bridge has been used mainly for carrying cement out to the present day, and large amounts of earth and sand were transported by vehicles across the bridge during the construction of Chubu International Airport.