It is a bridge located in the Green Mountain (Jabal Al-Akhdar) district. 20 km west of Bayda city, eastern Libya. It links the cities of Bayda and Al-Marj. It is considered the highest bridge in the country and the second highest bridge in Africa. It is also considered one of the most important landmarks in the region.
It was designed by the Italian civil engineer Riccardo Morandi. Its construction began in 1965 and it cost 5.300.000 million dollars. The bridge was opened in 1972. It crosses the Kouf Valley. It is about 282 meters long, and 160 meters in height.
For seven years, its 282 meters central span was the longest concrete cable-stayed bridge span in the world.
On 25 October 2017, the Security Directorate of the Green Mountain region in east Libya called on the security services to close down Wadi El-Kuf bridge, following inspections that identified potential fractures in the bridge. The following day, road transport engineers inspected the bridge and stated that it needed emergency maintenance but was safe.
On 27 October 2017, the bridge was reopened for light traffic, while local security officials were preventing heavily loaded trucks from crossing in groups.
On 8 August 2018 another similar security alert has been reported, but no details about another bridge closure or the structural problems identified is available.
Similar bridge in Genoa, Italy also designed by Morandi and usually called Ponte Morandi, where differently from Wadi El-Kuf, structural problems have been known since the first years after construction in 1967, one of its 3 towers collapsed on 14 August 2018, killing 43.
Another old bridge was built before this one and near it, in the early twentieth century. It was known as “Wadi Jerreib Bridge,” and it still exists today, but it is not used.