Otebashi Bridge (Kisogawa River)
I have previously written about the “RC Lohse girder bridges groupe designed by Takeshi Nakajima” which was selected as the Civil Engineering Heritage Site in 2002.
The bridges are Otebashi Bridge, Himekawa-bashi Bridge, Oyazawa-bashi Bridge, Showa-bashi Bridge, and Sakae-hashi Bridge in Nagano Prefecture.
I have already visited four of the five bridges and only Otebashi Bridge remains. (But I haven’t walked on the Himekawa-bashi Brodge yet.)
This time, I went out to see the Otebashi Bridge in Kiso Town.
The photo shows the Otebasi Bridge as seen from the neighboring Chuo-bashi Bridge. Otebashi and Chuo-bashi are only about 150 meters apart.
The location of the Otebashi Bridge is shown on the map.
Otebashi was completed in 1936 and was the first of the five bridges selected for the Civil Engineering Heritage.
Although it is now in Kiso Town, Kiso County, at the time of construction it was in Fukushima Town, Nishi-Chikuma County. (Nishi-Chikuma County was renamed Kiso County in 1968.)
I am now on the south side of the bridge.
The bridge is 34.3 meters long and 5.5 meters wide.
On the right side of the bridge, there is an explanatory board.
The following is a quote from the description.
“It was called 'Oyashiki-mae-bashi’ (Bridge in front of the residence), but was renamed “Ote-bashi” in the Meiji era. It was destroyed by floods twice since the Meiji era. In 1936, the bridge was built as the world’s first reinforced concrete Lohse girder bridge designed by Takeshi Nakajima, a doctor of engineering, and was recommended as a Civil Engineering Heritage Site by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers in 2002.“
The photo on the explanatory board was described as being from the Otebashi Bridge’s opening ceremony (1913). This must mean that it is a bridge of the previous generation.
A “Civil Engineering Heritage” plaque is attached to the left side.
There is a path along the river where people can walk down to the riverbank, so I photographed the bridge from below.
This is looking at the bridge from the upstream side.
The bottom of the bridge seems to have been reinforced with a steel frame later, although I do not know when.
Climbing up, then I moved to downstream side and take this photo.
A steel-framed walkway has been built on the downstream side.
I will cross to the other side of the river on this walkway.
The Otebashi Bridge seen from the north.
The next photo was taken from the upstream side of the river after a short walk.
Rust and cracks were visible.
The last photo is a different topic.
This photo, taken from the south bank before crossing the bridge, shows the Kiso Education Hall.
The hall was completed in 1937, a year after the completion of the Otebashi Bridge.
I had never seen the name of the designer of the hall until now, but I happened to find the document this time.
A part of the “50th Anniversary History of Kiso Junior High School” is posted on the website of Kiso Village Kiso Junior High School (opened in 1947). In an interview with Mr. Kesajiro Saito, who was the master builder of the school building, the following remarks are found:
“The design (of the school building) was done by Mr. Matajiro Ikeda. He designed the Kiso Education Hall, Naragawa National School, and the Tadachi School, during the school construction boom of the time."
From this statement, we know that the designer of the Kiso Education Hall was Matajiro Ikeda , an engineer of the nagano prefectural government.
Mr. Saito was also in charge of the construction of the Kiso Education Hall as the chief building engineer, so his remarks will be reliable.
Back to the topic of bridges.
Having visited the Otebashi Bridge, I have now completed my visit to the five bridges designed by Takeshi Nakajima that have been selected as Civil Engineering Heritage sites.
However, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I have not yet been able to cross the Himekawa-bashi Bridge because it was under repair work.
The work is scheduled to be completed in January 2025, so I am considering a return visit sometime next spring.
[Related articles]
“Showa-bashi Bridge (1)" (2024-09-29)
“Showa-bashi Bridge (2)" (2024-09-30)
“Oyazawa-bashi Bridge" (2024-10-03)
“Sakae-hashi Bridge" (2024-10-12)
[Reference]
“Memories of School Building Construction” from the 50th Anniversary History of Kiso-Junior High School (published in March 1998) (Kiso-Village Kiso-Junior High School website)