General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge#History
{{short description|Bridge in Venezuela}}
{{Expand Spanish|topic=struct|Puente General Rafael Urdaneta|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox Bridge
|bridge_name = General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge
|image = General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge view from the lake to Cabimas side.jpg
|caption =
|official_name =
|carries = vehicles
|crosses = Tablazo Strait
|locale = Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela
|maint =
|id =
|designer = Riccardo Morandi
|design = Cable-stayed bridge
|material = Reinforced concrete
|spans = 135
|pierswater =
|mainspan = {{convert|235|m}} x 5
|width =
|load =
|clearance =
|below =
|traffic =
|begin = 1958{{Structurae|id=20000043|title=Maracaibo Bridge}}
|cost = Bs. 350 million{{citation | url = http://www.venezuelatuya.com/occidente/maracaiboeng.htm | title = Venezuela Tuya - Maracaibo | accessdate = 6 August 2014 }}
|open =
|heritage =
|collapsed =
|preceded =
|followed =
|closed =
|toll =
|map_cue =
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|coordinates = {{coord|10|34|27.38|N|71|34|33.73|W|type:landmark_region:VE_source:dewiki|display=inline,title}}
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}}
The General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge is located at the Tablazo Strait outlet of Lake Maracaibo, in western Venezuela. The bridge connects Maracaibo with much of the rest of the country. It is named after General Rafael Urdaneta, a Venezuelan hero of Independence who was born in Maracaibo.
Design and construction
Made of reinforced and prestressed concrete, the cable-stayed bridge spans {{convert|8.678|km|mi}} from shore to shore. The five main spans are each {{convert|235|m}} long.Virlogeux, p.61 They are supported from {{convert|92|m|adj=on}} tall towers, and provide {{convert|46|m}} of clearance to the water below.Dupré, p. 91 The bridge carries only vehicles.
The competition to design the bridge started in 1957 and was won by Juan Francisco Otaola Pavan and his partner Oscar Benedetti, Venezuelan civil engineers and owners of Precomprimido C.A., with the design of Riccardo Morandi, an Italian civil engineer. While Morandi designed the bridge, it was Otaola and Benedetti who made the structural and budget calculations, which in part with Otaola's demand for the project to be done by at least 50% of Venezuelan companies and workforce, secured the winning bid for the Venezuelan government.{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdBs6sZ-5-g}} Precomprimido's was the only concrete design out of twelve entries, and was expected to be less expensive to maintain, as well as providing valuable experience of prestressed concrete technology for Venezuela. Precomprimido's construction was aided by several international companies, primarily Julius Berger as well as Grün & Bilfinger, Bauboag AG, Philipp Holzmann AG, Wayss & Freytag and K Ingeniería.
According to eminent bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux:
the Lake Maracaibo Bridge deserves to be part of the series of the most famous bridges over the world, with the Golden Gate Bridge, the bridge over the Firth of Forth, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Garabit Viaduct.
History
It was opened on 24 August 1962 by the then-president of Venezuela Romulo Betancourt.
In April 1964, parts of the bridge collapsed after a collision with the tanker Esso Maracaibo, causing the deaths of seven people.{{cite web|url=http://www.aukevisser.nl/others/id1337.htm|title=The collision between "Esso Maracaibo" & the Bridge|website=Auke Visser's Other Esso Related Tankers Site|access-date=15 August 2018}}
The construction of a second cable-stayed bridge has been proposed since 1982, with a series of studies made since 2000. The cost of the new bridge has been estimated at US$440m, to be largely privately financed via tolls.
The bridge's structural integrity received heightened concern after the August 2018 collapse of a stayed pier on a similar bridge, Ponte Morandi in Genoa, Italy.
See also
References
- Dupré, Judith: "Bridges", Könemann, 1998, {{ISBN|3-8290-0408-7}}
- Virlogeux, Michel: "Bridges with Multiple Cable Stayed Spans", Structural Engineering International, 1/2001
Notes
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080409145924/http://www.puentesobreellago.org.ve/ General Rafael Urdaneta Website in spanish]
- {{Structurae|id=20015182|title=Second Lake Maracaibo Bridge}}
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdBs6sZ-5-g]
- [http://www.venezuelatuya.com/occidente/maracaiboeng.htm Info on Maracaibo including the bridge]
- [http://www.aukevisser.nl/others/id384.htm Esso Maracaibo website]
- https://www.venezuelatuya.com/occidente/puenterafaelurdanetaeng.htm
Category:Bridges completed in 1962
Category:Cable-stayed bridges in Venezuela