Frame and Form

From 27 th to 29 th April, took place in San Sebastián-Donostia the Second Conference on Bridges, organized by the Spanish Road Association. Form and Frame had the opportunity to attend and now briefly reveals some of the highlights of those days.

In the first session, Juan José Arenas explained from an emotional standpoint his experience as a bridge designer , illustrated with pictures of his many works. We'll highlight, by being recent, the Third Millennium Bridge and the Bridge over the Alcántara reservoir.

The Third Millennium Bridge, brother of the famous Barqueta bridge in Seville , was built for the Expo Zaragoza 2008. The structure consists of a white concrete bow-string arch (f'c= 75 MPa) a 216 m span. Its dimensions stand on the edge of feasibility on its typology.

millennium bridge - (C) jorge Sesé

The Alcántara reservoir viaduct is a 996 m long structure, with a maximum span of 384 m achieved through an arch. This work will allow the crossing of the high speed train line over the dam.

Embalse de Alcántara Viaduct

Javier Manterola, Antonio Cutillas and Lucia Fernandez (Carlos Fernandez Casado, SL) respectively presented Pepa Bridge, the Contreras Viaduct and the Basagoiti double Viaduct .

The first structure, the spectacular Pepa Bridge in Cadiz, is a 3 km long cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of 540 m (Spanish record). Its pylons, more than 180 m high, are currently under construction.

Pepa Bridge in Cadiz

To allow the crossing of the high speed train line over the Contreras Reservoir, a 590 m long structure, with a main span of 261 m, making it in the current European record in railway arch concrete bridges.

Contreras Reservoir Viaduct

The final structure of this post is the Basagoiti Viaduct . This bridge, a 420 m long structure, presents a distance between pier bases up to 125 m. To reduce the deck span without increasing the number of supports, the most notable elements of the viaduct were designed: the V-shaped piers. With this substructure, the deck spans are reduced to 55 m.

Basagoiti Viaduct

Shortly we will continue with the summary of this Conference.