Highway Museum Complex

Highway museum complex is the Sri Lanka’s first highway museum and is located in Kiribathkumbura, Kandy. The museum is maintained by the Road Development Authority.

Almost opposite, on the right side of the road, are a plethora of memorabilia ranging from steam rollers, tar boilers, weighing scales, a scarifier, stone rollers, a wooden bridge, and so on, evoking nostalgia and the grandeur of a bygone era.

At the beginning of the premises, towards the Colombo end, there is an orange-coloured building. It houses a steam roller (powered by steam) from the early nineteenth century. There is also the scarifier, which is an instrument used in the road construction process to break down metal scrap in waste. The structure also houses the Bull-roller, which was powered by elephants before the nineteenth century.

A tar barrel that had been used in the road-building process was also stored here when the museum was established in 1989.

There’s also the weighing scale that was used to weigh firewood back when it was a raw material source of energy. Also, at the time, stones were commonly used as weights. These were also recovered during President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s tenure in 1989, when the Museum was established. A tool set used in the construction of the highways can be found in the Museum’s storeroom

Furthermore, there is a wooden replica of a 300-meter bridge; a model of the amazing Bogoda Bridge in the Badulla District. The steam roller, which runs on oil, is also housed in the building.

There are no entrance fees to visitors and there are no time limits since it is situated in an open space area alongside the A1 highway.