The Santiago Bridge (''St. James Bridge'') crosses the

Lérez River The Lérez is a river in South West Galicia, Spain. The river meets the Atlantic Ocean at Pontevedra, where it creates Pontevedra's ria. The sources of the long stream are in Serra do Candán, in the mountain of San Bieito, in the parish of ...

in the city of

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a city in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. It is the capital of both the ''Pontevedra (comarca), Comarca'' and Province of Pontevedra, and the capital of the Rías Baixas. It is als ...

(

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

), where the N-550 road runs alongside it. It connects the city centre with the A Xunqueira area and the O Burgo district.

History

The project for this bridge, designed to relieve congestion on the

Burgo Bridge The Burgo Bridge ''(Puente del Burgo)'' is a medieval bridge, built over an older bridge of Roman origin, which crosses the Lérez River in the city of Pontevedra, Spain. It is on the route of the Portuguese Way to the north of the old town of P ...

over which the N-550 used to run, was presented in 1980. Construction began in June 1981 and was carried out by the Spanish Government's Ministry of Public Works at a cost of 173 million pesetas. Inaugurated on 11 September 1983 by the former Minister of Public Works

Jesús Sancho Rof Jesús Sancho Rof (December 16, 1940 in Madrid) is a Spanish politician and university professor who was a minister in the UCD governments during the presidencies of Adolfo Suárez and Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. He is also Doctor in Physical Sciences ...

, it was not fully operational until the redevelopment of Buenos Aires Avenue and the inauguration of Compostela Avenue on 3 July 1987, which, with four lanes, gave continuity to the Santiago Bridge and offered a new exit to the city from the north towards Santiago de Compostela and A Coruña.

Description

It is a

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

girder bridge A girder bridge is a bridge that uses girders as the means of supporting its deck. The two most common types of modern steel girder bridges are plate and box. The term "girder" is often used interchangeably with "beam" in reference to bridge d ...

with two decks supported on four

pillars A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

. Each of the two decks has three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

. The span of the central bay is 48 metres and that of the side bays is 25 metres. The bridge is 99 metres long and 17 metres wide. It has four

lanes In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in eac ...

for vehicles,

guard rails Guard rails, guardrails, railings or protective guarding, in general, are a boundary feature and may be a means to prevent or deter access to dangerous or off-limits areas while allowing light and visibility in a greater way than a fence. Commo ...

and two pavements. The bridge ends on the north bank with a wide passage for pedestrians and cyclists. It connects Padre Amoedo Carballo Street to Compostela Avenue. In its early years of service, it was simply called Tercer Puente (third bridge) until the opening of Compostela Avenue to traffic. As it was the natural exit from the city to Santiago de Compostela, it was renamed Santiago Bridge.

Gallery

File:Pontevedra-Río Lérez20 (5295959275).jpg, Santiago Bridge with O Burgo and A Caeira in the background. File:Pontevedra desde a Caeira 01-03.jpg, On the left, from top to bottom, the Tirantes, Santiago and Burgo bridges. File:Ponte de Santiago.jpg, In the foreground the Santiago Bridge, behind the Tirantes Bridge.

History

Description

Gallery

References

See also

Related articles

External links