Sultan Ismail Bridge

Sungai Muar Bridge Jambatan Sultan Ismail جمبتن سلطان اسماعيل
Carries	Motor vehicles, Pedestrians
Crosses	Muar River
Locale	Muar-Melaka Highway, Muar
Official name	Sultan Ismail Bridge
Maintained by	Malaysian Public Works Department (JKR) Muar and Tangkak Selia Selenggara Sdn Bhd Majlis Perbandaran Muar (MPMuar) Majlis Daerah Tangkak (MDTangkak)
Characteristics
Design	box girder
Total length	385 m
Width	9 m
Longest span	–
History
Designer	Government of Malaysia Malaysian Public Works Department (JKR)
Constructed by	Malaysian Public Works Department (JKR)
Opened	1967

The Sultan Ismail Bridge (Malay: Jambatan Sultan Ismail; Jawi: جمبتن سلطان اسماعيل) is a bridge in Muar town across the Muar River in Johor, Malaysia. It was the first bridge built across a river that connects Bandar Maharani Muar to Tanjung Agas in Ledang district. The bridge replaced old ferry services in the 1960s. The bridge was originally a toll bridge making the second toll bridge in Malaysia after Sultan Yahya Petra Bridge in Kelantan (opened in 1967).

Before construction, the people who want to Cross (call for the Tanjung Agas and Malacca) had crossed the Muar river using the ferry facility called Penambang which began operating around 1890 since Muar was officially opened by the late Sultan of Johor, Almarhum Sultan Abu Bakar.

Due to the rapid development time, felt unable to cope Penambang vehicles wishing to cross the Muar River. Travel by ferry is quite time consuming and even dangerous especially during flood season. Therefore, the proposal was made to build a bridge that will connect to Tanjung Agas Muar Town and Malacca.

Originally, the government planned to build a bridge across Sungai Batu Pahat alone. But after receiving pressure from Muar residents, the government added a proposal to build a bridge to Muar and Batu Pahat. Proposal to build two bridges that have been included in the Second Malaya Plan (1961–1966) by the Malayan Public Works Department (JKR) and it was announced by the Minister of Public Works, Tun VT Sambanthan.

The Government then open invitation to tender in 1960 and received 25 tenders from 10 firms who are interested in the two of them are from the French company based here. The government had to wait almost 4 years to get financing to build the bridge.

Finally, in July 1964 the government announced that two local companies Wing Co. Ltd. and Development Services Ltd has won the tender of RM5.2 million for the two bridges Muar and Batu Pahat.

Initially, the government estimated allocation of RM8 million for the construction of both the bridge and the government finally succeeded in obtaining financing proceeds of RM9 million loan from Chase Manhattan Bank.

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Wikipedia