The Alamillo Bridge ( es, Puente del Alamillo) is a structure in
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
,
Andalucia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...
(
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
), which spans the Canal de Alfonso XIII, allowing access to
La Cartuja
''Isla de la Cartuja'' (; ) is an island in the Guadalquivir River at Seville, Spain.
The island's name derives from the cloistered monastery (Cartuja) located on the site, the '' Monasterio de Santa María de las Cuevas'', where Cristopher Colu ...
, a peninsula located between the canal and the
Guadalquivir River
The Guadalquivir (, also , , ) is the fifth-longest river in the Iberian Peninsula and the second-longest river with its entire length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is the only major navigable river in Spain. Currently it is navigable from the Gulf ...
. The bridge was constructed as part of infrastructure improvements for
Expo 92, which was held on large banana farms on the island. Construction of the bridge began in 1989 and was completed in 1992 from a design by
Santiago Calatrava
Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is a Spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, particularly known for his bridges supported by single leaning pylons, and his railway stations, stadiums, and museums, whose sculpt ...
.
Design
![Seville, Sevilla, Spain - panoramio (38)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Seville%2C_Sevilla%2C_Spain_-_panoramio_%2838%29.jpg)
The static concept of the bridge can be traced back to the 1986 sculpture by Calatrava entitled 'Running Torso', in which inclined stacked marble cubes are balanced by a tensioned wire. The Alamillo Bridge consists of a single straight steel-shell tower, infilled with reinforced concrete and inclined backward, counterbalancing a 200 m span with thirteen pairs of cables. Since the weight of the tower is made to be sufficient to counter-balance the deck, back stays are thus not required, effectively substituting the weight of an inclined tower for one set of stay cables. In this way, a new type of
cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge
A cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge is a modern variation of the cable-stayed bridge. This design has been pioneered by the structural engineer Santiago Calatrava in 1992 with the Puente del Alamillo in Seville, Spain. In two of his designs th ...
was conceived in 1987.
The original intent was to build two symmetrical bridges on either side of the island, but in the end the Alamillo's singular asymmetric design has proved most striking.
The bridge deck consists of an hexagonal steel-box-beam spine to which the stay cables are attached. Side steel wings cantilevered off the hexagonal spine support the traffic decks, three lanes on each side. The top of the hexagonal spine, elevated 1.6 meters (5 feet) above the road level, serves as an elevated footway and cycle lane in between the traffic lanes.
This bridge represented the soaring aspirations of the city of Seville in preparation for
Expo '92, and is visible from the top of
La Giralda, the former minaret which is the sentimental roof of the city, linking Seville's past and present. Similar to the Brooklyn Bridge, there is an elevated walkway for pedestrians. In addition to the elevated walkway, the Alamillo Bridge features a lookout at the top of the inclined tower, accessible by a stairway enclosed within the tower.
The Alamillo Bridge is the first cable-stayed bridge that is balanced solely through the weight of the massive tower, not requiring any type of back stays or anchorage. There are 54 steel piles under the bridge, acting passively under the tower. Calatrava's
Sundial Bridge in
Redding, California
Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border wi ...
(2004), the Mesoghion Avenue Footbridge in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and
Chords Bridge
The Chords Bridge ( he, גשר המיתרים, ''Gesher HaMeitarim''), also called the Bridge of Strings or Jerusalem Light Rail Bridge, is a side-spar cable-stayed bridge in Jerusalem. The structure was designed by the Spanish architect and eng ...
in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
(2008) are similar in design to the Alamillo Bridge.
Critique
![Erasmusbrug - panoramio (4)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Erasmusbrug_-_panoramio_%284%29.jpg)
While the Alamillo Bridge is dramatic and widely acclaimed aesthetically,
an analysis of its structural engineering show that it has an inefficient dynamic structural form because of the lack of backstays or anchorage to provide a restoring force under changing loads. One indication of this is the extreme weight of the pylon member needed in the Alamillo Bridge compared with other cable-stayed bridges such as the
Erasmus Bridge
The Erasmusbrug (English: "Erasmus Bridge") is a combined cable-stayed and bascule bridge, construction began in 1986 and was completed in 1996. It crosses the Nieuwe Maas in the centre of Rotterdam, connecting the north and south parts of this ci ...
in Rotterdam, which has a backward-inclined pylon and backstays. The total mass of the pylon of the Alamillo Bridge is over 10 times the pylon mass of the Erasmus Bridge, which has even a longer span than the Alamillo.
See also
*
Puente de la Mujer
The Puente de la Mujer (Spanish for "Woman's Bridge") is a rotating footbridge for Dock 3 of the Puerto Madero commercial district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is of the cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge type and is also a swing bridge, but som ...
,
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
*
Samuel Beckett Bridge
Samuel Beckett Bridge () is a cable-stayed swingbridge in Dublin, Ireland that joins Sir John Rogerson's Quay on the south side of the River Liffey to Guild Street and North Wall Quay in the Docklands area.
Design and construction
Architect ...
,
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
*
Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
,
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 ...
*
Puente de la Unidad
Puente de la Unidad or Viaducto de la Unidad is a cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge designed by Óscar Bulnes that crosses the Santa Catarina River and connects the cities of Monterrey and San Pedro Garza García in the Mexican state of Nuevo L ...
,
Monterrey
Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
*
Erasmus Bridge
The Erasmusbrug (English: "Erasmus Bridge") is a combined cable-stayed and bascule bridge, construction began in 1986 and was completed in 1996. It crosses the Nieuwe Maas in the centre of Rotterdam, connecting the north and south parts of this ci ...
,
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
,
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
References
External links
Puente del Alamillo on en.broer.noPuente del Alamillo in Factoría Urbana: Photos and technical information about the bridge*
Alamillo Bridge - WikiArquitectura
{{Coord, 37, 24, 48, N, 5, 59, 25, W, region:ES-SE_type:landmark, display=title
Alamillo
Alamillo
Bridges by Santiago Calatrava
Alamillo
Tourist attractions in Seville
World's fair architecture in Seville
Seville Expo '92
Neo-futurism architecture
Inclined towers
Bridges over the Guadalquivir River