1992: Spain Gets a New Bridge

March 25, 1992

The Ria Bridge, which is located in northwestern Spain’s autonomous community of Galicia, was opened to traffic. (A ria is a coastal inlet that has been formed for the partial submergence of a river that was never covered or otherwise impacted by any glaciers or ice sheets.) This bridge is part of the motorway named Autoestrada do Atlántico (AP-9) and it carries motor vehicles across the body of water known as the Ria de Pontevedra.

Measuring a total of 2,300 feet (700 meters), the bridge serves as a connection between the neighborhood of Mollavo in the city of Pontevedra on the ria’s south bank; and the municipality of Poio on the ria’s north bank. This structure combines elements of both rigid-frame and box girder bridges.

Construction on the Ria Bridge began on December 21, 1989. The bridge was jointly designed by engineers Leonardo Fernández Troyano, Javier Manterola Armisén, and Amando López Padilla. On average, approximately 50,000 motor vehicles travel across the Ria Bridge each day.

Photo Credit: juanitagues (https://www.flickr.com/people/14058263@N06) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

For more information on the Ria Bridge (“Ponte da Ria” in Spanish), please check out https://structurae.net/en/structures/ponte-da-ria