The Rainha Santa Isabel Bridge ( Portuguese: ''Ponte Rainha Santa Isabel'') is a

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

with semi-fan system completed in 2003 and opened in 2004, crossing the

Mondego River The Rio Mondego () or Mondego River is the longest river entirely within Portugal, Portuguese territory. It has its source in Serra da Estrela, the highest mountain range in Continental Portugal, mainland Portugal (i.e. excluding the Portuguese ...

. Although it had an initial estimated value of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

38.65 million, it severely surpassed that to

59.3 million. The construction of this bridge permitted a quicker access to the south of the city of

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

, namely to ''Pólo II'' section of the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

. It carries N17 but connects to IC2. Construction was interrupted in October 2002 due to "alleged threat of collapse"{{Cite web, title=Aecops - Ponte Rainha Santa Isabel finalmente inaugurada, url=http://prewww.aecops.pt/pls/daecops3/pnews.build_page?text=12366310, access-date=2020-09-15, website=prewww.aecops.pt During its construction it was known as ''Ponte Europa'' (Europe Bridge) which still holds as an alternate name, although not official.

References

External links

*
Coimbra: Derrapagem da Ponte Europa chega a tribunal - JN
. ''www.jn.pt'' (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-09-15. Cable-stayed bridges in Portugal Buildings and structures in Coimbra Bridges completed in 2003