Unique road bridge - Puente de la Pepa in Cádiz by Silva Wischeropp

About "Unique road bridge - Puente de la Pepa in Cádiz"

by Silva Wischeropp

About the artwork

The Puente de la Constitución de 1812 (Bridge of the Constitution of 1812), also known colloquially as the Puente de la Pepa, is the second road bridge that connects the Spanish city of Cádiz with Puerto Real on the other side of the Bay of Cádiz and thus directly with the mainland, saving the diversions via San Fernando and the CA-33 to the south of the bay.

It has the largest span of all Spanish cable-stayed bridges and is the third largest in Europe after the Pont de Normandie in France and the Rio Andirrio Bridge in Greece. It is also the longest bridge in Spain.
The Puente de la Constitución de 1812 is located 2.5 km north of the Puente José León de Carranza bascule bridge, which was opened in 1969, and is the main part of the Autovia de acceso da Cádiz (motorway access to Cádiz) with the number CA-35.
The Puente de la Constitución de 1812 is a motorway with two lanes in each direction, separated by a concrete safety barrier. There is no hard shoulder.

The bridge had to have a clearance height of 69 metres so as not to interfere with access to the shipyard in the southern bay of Cádiz and therefore requires long ramp bridges to bring traffic up to this height. Including these ramp bridges, it is therefore 3095 m long.[3] The entire transport structure, including the 796 m long Viaducto del Río San Pedro, which was built at the same time, is around 5 km long.

The main bridge is a 1180 m long cable-stayed bridge with spans of 120 + 200 + 540 + 200 + 120 m.

It is supported by two 185 m high, diamond-shaped pylons made of reinforced concrete, which end in a vertical stem in which a high anchor box is arranged for the (4 × 22 =) 88 stay cables each. One of the pylons stands on the seabed, the other on land about 60 m behind the edge of the loading quay to allow the harbour cranes there sufficient space for their operation.