The Sejingkat Bridge, a 1.28km four-lane, dual-carriageway crossing of the Sarawak River costing RM365.74 million, was due to open to the public on 1 October, Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said in August, according to Bernama. It gives traffic between Kota Samarahan and the north bank of Kuching a route that does not pass through the city centre.

The bridge is the first section of a longer road. Beyond it, the route runs through Kampung Tanjung Bako to the Batang Samarahan Bridge, and part of that stretch was still under construction when the state last published progress figures.

What the bridge connects, and why it was built

The crossing joins Sejingkat on the Kuching side of the river with the Tanjung Bako area in the Samarahan division. Uggah, who is also Sarawak's Minister for Infrastructure and Port Development, said that people travelling from Kota Samarahan or Serian to Demak Laut, Petra Jaya or the industrial areas on the north bank previously had to go through the city centre, which caused serious congestion. With the bridge in place, he said, a large share of that traffic could be diverted, Bernama reported.

He spoke on 17 August after officiating at the bridge's final connection ceremony. He described it as the 12th bridge completed under the state's road network transformation plan and part of the Sarawak Coastal Road network, paid for entirely by the state government under the Post-COVID-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030.

The three packages behind the route

The Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak treats the bridge as one of three packages of the Second Kuching-Samarahan Trunk Road, which falls under the state's coastal road programme. JKR Sarawak lists them as:

  • Package D3A: the bridge over the Sarawak River at Sejingkat
  • Package D3B: upgrading the existing Jalan Kampung Tanjong Bako from the JKR R3 standard to the R5 standard
  • Package D3C: a new road from the Tanjung Bako road to the Batang Samarahan Bridge

When work began in 2021, the then Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Port Development, Datuk Julaihi Narawi, described the road works as a nine-kilometre upgrade of the Kampung Tanjong Bako road leading to the bridge and a new seven-kilometre road linking it with the Batang Samarahan Bridge, Bernama reported in May 2021.

How much of the Tanjung Bako road is finished

The full route from the Sejingkat Bridge to the Batang Samarahan Bridge through Kampung Tanjung Bako is 17km long. In June 2025, Deputy Minister for Infrastructure and Port Development Datuk Ir Aidel Lariwoo said the 10km from Kampung Tanjung Bako to the bridge had already been completed under an earlier package, according to UKAS.

The remaining 7km, package D3C, stood at 23.09 per cent complete against a target of 23.13 per cent at that visit. Aidel attributed the slippage to utility issues, design changes and late delivery of materials, sand in particular, and asked the contractor to speed up sand supply for the embankment. He said the state classifies D3C as a rescue project. No later progress figure for D3C appears in the official material we reviewed.

How the bridge itself fell behind and caught up

At the same visit, the bridge was 52.45 per cent complete against an annual target of 59.75 per cent, a gap of about 7.3 percentage points. Aidel put this down to technical problems with temporary works using form travellers, which the report describes as critical equipment in bridge construction, and said the contractor was importing two sets directly from China to speed the work up.

The revised contract had set completion for February 2026; the contractor committed to finishing before June 2026. The same UKAS report gives the deck a clearance of 26 metres above river level.

What the figures say about cost

The official figure has moved over the life of the project:

The sources do not say whether the RM365.74 million figure covers only package D3A or includes the approach works.

What comes after the bridge

Aidel said the extended road would also form the base for later links to Tanjong Embang, Batu Belat, Beliong and Semilang Beradeh, which the state intends to tie into a planned deep-sea port and new airport, UKAS reported. Uggah said the bridge was also expected to support commercial, agricultural and aquaculture activity along the corridor, according to Bernama.

For coverage of both ends of the crossing, see our pages on the Kuching division and the Samarahan division.

Sources