The Gouritz River Bridge on the
N2 route between
Cape Town
Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
and
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...
is a
rigid-frame bridge
A rigid-frame bridge is a bridge in which the superstructure and substructure are rigidly connected to act as a continuous unit. Typically, the structure is cast monolithically, making the structure continuous from deck to foundation. The con ...
which crosses the
Gouritz River west of
Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay () is a harbour town of about 170,000 people on the Garden Route of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the country's seat of parliament, Ca ...
in the
Western Cape
The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...
.
Structural design
The total length of the deck is and consists of four spans. A prominent feature of the bridge is the main span which is long supported by two pairs of diagonal reinforced concrete struts founded on abutments . The reinforced concrete deck together with two pairs of inclined supports at eastern and western sides of the river form a rigid frame structure. The two spans on the eastern side have a total length of and this section of deck is supported by vertical columns 45m from the end. The deck superstructure consists of a continuous prestressed concrete box girder with deck slabs cantilevered laterally to design width.
Gallery
File:Bridge Gouritsrivier.JPG
External links
*
Bridges in South Africa
Bridges completed in 1978
Concrete bridges
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