The Bergsøysund Bridge ( no, Bergsøysundbrua) is a

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maxi ...

that crosses the Bergsøysundet

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean channe ...

between the islands of

Aspøya Aspøya is an artificial island in Tingvoll Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located between the Freifjorden and the Tingvollfjorden. The European route E39 highway crosses Aspøya and connects it to the nearby island of ...

(in

Tingvoll Tingvoll is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Tingvollvågen. Other villages include Meisingset, Kvisvik, and Torjulvågen. The municipality cove ...

) and Bergsøya (in

Gjemnes Gjemnes is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway on the Romsdal peninsula. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Batnfjordsøra, which lies along the Batnfjorden and it is a former steamship ...

) in

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The bridge is long, the longest span is , and the maximum clearance to the sea is . The bridge has 13 spans. Bergsøysund Bridge was opened in 1992. It is part of the

Krifast The Kristiansund Mainland Connection ( or abbreviated ''Krifast'') is a road system consisting of the European route E39 highway and Norwegian National Road 70 that connects Kristiansund Municipality to the neighboring islands of Frei, Bergsø ...

system, the town of

Kristiansund Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of ...

's road connection to the mainland. The bridge cost .

Construction

Floating bridge/

construction has a long history in military and civilian applications on every continent except

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. According to the engineers who designed this bridge, it was designed using recent American technology for floating bridges, combined with Norwegian technology for

offshore platform An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

s. The bridge designers researched other bridges in the world and traveled to the state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to visit the

Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge The Third Lake Washington Bridge, officially the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, is a floating bridge in the Seattle metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Washington. It is one of the Interstate 90 floating bridges, carrying the westbound lane ...

and the

Hood Canal Bridge The Hood Canal Bridge (officially William A. Bugge Bridge) is a floating bridge in the northwest United States, located in western Washington. It carries State Route 104 across Hood Canal of Puget Sound and connects the Olympic and Kitsap P ...

—two floating bridges. The continuous floating

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

structure used in the Washington bridges was ultimately ruled out in favor of the discrete floating concrete pier design. This design afforded: 1) an elevated roadway that reduced traffic hazards in storms, 2) a reduction in

corrosion Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engine ...

of the

bridge deck A deck is the surface of a bridge. A structural element of its superstructure, it may be constructed of concrete, steel, open grating, or wood. Sometimes the deck is covered by a railroad bed and track, asphalt concrete, or other form of pa ...

, and 3) improved passage of water beneath the bridge thereby supporting native species.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergsoysund Bridge Bridges in Møre og Romsdal Bridges completed in 1992 Pontoon bridges Gjemnes Tingvoll 1992 establishments in Norway European route E39 in Norway Norwegian National Road 70

Construction

See also

References