October 4, 2007 (LPAC)--Indonesia plans to build the worlds longest bridge - a road and railway suspension bridge across the 30 kilometer Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. The $10 billion project includes a series of bridges which will carry a six-lane highway and a double-track railway, traversing three small islands in the Strait.

The longest span would be about 3 kilometers, more than 50% longer than the longest existing structure, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan. Heka Harono, of the Artha Graha Network, the lead member of the consortium that will build the bridge, said construction will begin in 2012 if feasibility studies confirm its viability. The bridge would open in 2025, the Financial Times reported.

The bridge was first proposed more than a decade ago. The Sunda Strait lies in one of the world's dangerous earthquake zones, 40 kilometers from Krakatau. But with today's technology, "This sort of project is perfectly possible," said Scott Younger, a civil engineer and infrastructure expert based in Indonesia, provided the money is spent to compensate for the earthquake danger.

The bridge would cut the travel time between Java and Sumatra significantly--the trip now takes several hours by ferry. Some 20 million people crossed the Strait in 2006, and this number is forecast to double by 2020. Indonesian National Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta said the government fully supports the project: It will increase economic growth, so people in the two areas and beyond will enjoy significant benefits. By linking Sumatra and Java, the bridge is a setback to longstanding Anglo-Dutch plans to break up Indonesia.