Angkor bridge restoration

SIEM REAP A temporary floating bridge will be built over the moat leading to Angkor Wat to allow restoration work on the original bridge.

The temporary bridge project will take six months of complete.

Khmer Times reported that Apsara Authority, the government body that manages the Angkor Archaeological Park, will cooperate with Sophia University in Japan to build the bridge to ensure visitors can still enter the temple.

Once completed work will begin on restoring the “Spean Harl” – the original bridge.

The work will require closure of the historic bridge, which provides access to the main avenue leading the famous temple

The floating bridge would be built to the south of the original structure so that tourists could visit the temple safely.

Construction on the temporary floating bridge will be completed by late May next year.

Japan granted Cambodia USD26 million for preservation of the Angkor Wat archaeological complex. For the bridge repairs, USD767,000 will come from Japan, while the Cambodian government will contribute USD820,000, the report said.

The bridge, west of the temple, is about 190 metres long. The first phase of repairs was completed in 2007 by the Apsara Authority and Sophia University, which has spent 12 years repairing 90 metres of the structure already.

In May, the Apsara Authority and its Japanese counterpart signed an agreement and held a ground-breaking ceremony for the second phase of repairs, which will fix 100 metres and take four years to complete.

For the first nine months of the year, the park welcomed 1.56 international tourists up 2.57% during the same period last year and generated USD44 million in ticket sales, an increase of 2.50%.

The largest sources of foreign tourists to the site were from China, South Korea, and Japan.

The entrance fee to the Angkor Historical Park costs USD20 a day (foreigners only), USD40 for a three-day visit and USD60 for a week-long visit.

The new entrance fees are due to take effect 1 February 2017.

The new fees are: one-day pass costs USD37, three-day pass USD62, and seven-day pass USD72.

The Angkor Archeological Park is the top tourist attraction in Cambodia, considerably ahead of the coastal resorts in and around Sihanoukville and ecotourism sites in the northeast part of the country.

The park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992 and is now the country’s largest cultural tourist destination. It is located in Siem Reap province, some 315 km northwest of capital Phnom Penh.