Sky Bridge | Langkawi, Malaysia | Discoveries | Engineer Ji

Design & Construction:

• The bridge is 125 meters long, and 1.8 meters wide (the middle section has a wider walkway), with two steel railings as well as steel wire mesh on either sides. It is designed as a curved walkway to maximise the viewing experience, providing shifting perspective as a visitor walks along the bridge. The walkway, formed of steel and concrete panels set on top of an inverted triangular truss, connects two hilltops at Gunung Mat Chinchang. The first 25m of the bridge is straight, following 3 curved 25m sections, then a final straight 25m section. 
• At each end of the walkway, the bridge has a 3.6m-wide triangular viewing platform that serves as resting and viewing areas for visitors.
• The bridge is suspended by 8 cables from a 81.5m high single pylon, and hangs at about 100m above ground. 
• The pylon is anchored onto a concreted pad set at an elevation of 604.5m, and its tip reached 686m above sea level. It is inclined at angles of 78° and 2° in two directions, and supported by two cables.
• The bridge is designed to carry a maximum capacity of 200 persons.

Construction: 

• The bridge was pre-fabricated, and sections were then lifted to the top of the mountain using Russian Kamov helicopters, and the entire bridge assembled in its current position by the pylon. Helicopters were used in the erection of the pylons and the main section of the deck, later decks sections however were assembled using more conventional working cable and winch system. 
• The bridge roughly costed $1.2 million dollars to construct.
• The bridge was constructed in 12 months between August 2003 and August 2004. 
• It was opened to the public on February 2005.

Upgrade in 2012:

• In July 2012, the bridge was closed for maintenance, upgrading and structural strengthening of the Sky Bridge. The whole structure would be of stainless steel, and when it is finished, it would have sections of glass walkway in the middle span so that visitors may look down the valley from where they stand, and an inclined elevator or lift called SkyGlide that can bring visitors from the top station down to the bridge.
• The bridge reopened in February 2015, although access was for a time still limited as the SkyGlide was not finished until December 2015.