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General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge | |
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| Coordinates | 10°34′27.38″N71°34′33.73″W / 10.5742722°N 71.5760361°W /10.5742722; -71.5760361 |
| Carries | vehicles |
| Crosses | Tablazo Strait |
| Locale | Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Cable-stayed bridge[1] |
| Material | Reinforced concrete[1] |
| Total length | 8.7 kilometres (5.4 mi)[1] |
| Height | 86.6 metres (284 ft)[1] |
| Longest span | 235 metres (771 ft) x 5 |
| No. of spans | 135 |
| History | |
| Designer | Riccardo Morandi |
| Construction start | 1958[1] |
| Construction end | 1962[1] |
| Construction cost | Bs. 350 million[2] |
| Location | |
 Interactive map of General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge | |
TheGeneral Rafael Urdaneta Bridge is located at the Tablazo Strait outlet ofLake Maracaibo, in westernVenezuela. The bridge connectsMaracaibo with much of the rest of the country. It is named afterGeneralRafael Urdaneta, a Venezuelan hero ofIndependence who was born in Maracaibo.
Made ofreinforced andprestressed concrete, thecable-stayed bridge spans 8.678 kilometres (5.392 mi) from shore to shore. The five main spans are each 235 metres (771 ft) long.[3] They are supported from 92-metre (302 ft) tall towers, and provide 46 metres (151 ft) of clearance to the water below.[4] The bridge carries only vehicles.
The competition to design the bridge started in 1957 and was won byJuan Francisco Otaola Pavan and his partnerOscar Benedetti, Venezuelan civil engineers and owners ofPrecomprimido C.A., with the design ofRiccardo 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.[5] 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.[4] Precomprimido's construction was aided by several international companies, primarilyJulius Berger as well asGrün & Bilfinger,Bauboag AG,Philipp Holzmann AG,Wayss & Freytag and K Ingeniería.
According to eminent bridge engineerMichel Virlogeux:[3]
the Lake Maracaibo Bridge deserves to be part of the series of the most famous bridges over the world, with theGolden Gate Bridge, the bridge over theFirth of Forth, theBrooklyn Bridge, and theGarabit Viaduct.
It was opened on 24 August 1962 by the then-president of VenezuelaRomulo Betancourt.[6]
In April 1964, parts of the bridge collapsed after a collision with thetankerEsso Maracaibo, causing the deaths of seven people.[7]
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 inGenoa, Italy. Both bridges were designed byRiccardo Morandi.[6]
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