The Almö Bridge () stood from 1960, when it was built to connect the island of

Tjörn Tjörn () is the sixth largest island in Sweden, located on the Swedish west coast in the province of Bohuslän. The area of the island is , and the area of the municipality is . The population, as of 2017, was 15,774 people. Geography Tjörn i ...

to the Swedish mainland, until 1980, when it collapsed after a ship hit it. Built after a suggestion from

Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...

, the arch bridge type was cheap to build but it also had narrow roadways that slowed traffic. Below it was the busy shipping lane leading to the town of

Uddevalla Uddevalla is a Stad (Sweden), town in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It’s the seat of Uddevalla Municipality. In 2015, it had a population of 34,781, making it the largest town fully in Bohuslän. Uddevalla is located where the river Bäveån ...

, which sported a large shipyard and bulk harbor at the time.

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The Almö bridge collapsed at 1:30 a.m. on January 18, 1980, when the

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially naval architecture, designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo—such as Grain trade, grain, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement—in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrie ...

struck the bridge arch, collapsing the main span. The roadway landed on top of the ship, destroying the ship's bridge but causing no casualties. The loss of the bridge made radio communication difficult, as the Swedish pilot had to use a handheld VHF radio. Because of the ice, the ship was unable to launch a boat to get to shore and warn motorists as fog descended on the area. Eight people died driving over the edge before the road on the Tjörn side was closed 40 minutes after the accident. The mainland side had been closed by a lorry driver who had slowly driven up the bridge in the fog, noticing the railing was missing; he stopped his lorry ten meters ahead of the missing roadway.

The bridge today

The large arch foundations still exist but the bridge was never rebuilt. A replacement, the

Tjörn Bridge The Tjörn Bridge ( Swedish: ''Tjörnbron'') is a cable-stayed bridge which together with two smaller bridges connects Stenungsund on mainland Sweden with the island Tjörn on the western coast of the country. The length is , the span width is , a ...

, was constructed in 17 months and opened the following year. The

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

has wider lanes for road traffic and eliminates its predecessor's vulnerability to ship collisions.

References

Printed Sources

*Brodin, Sune, ''Tjörnbron (Tjörn bridge)'', 1984 Vägverket Borlänge,

External links

''Tjörnbrokatastrofen''
(radio documentary in Swedish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Almo Bridge 1980 road incidents Arch bridges Bridges completed in 1960 Collisions between ships and bridges Bridge disasters in Sweden Former buildings and structures in Sweden Road incidents in Sweden Demolished buildings and structures in Sweden Maritime incidents in Sweden Former bridges 1960 establishments in Sweden Building and structure collapses in 1980 1980 in Sweden 20th-century disasters in Sweden 1980 disasters in Europe January 1980 in Europe Stenungsund Municipality Tjörn Municipality Buildings and structures in Västra Götaland County 1960s establishments in Gothenburg and Bohus County 20th-century disestablishments in Gothenburg and Bohus County 1980 disestablishments in Sweden

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The bridge today

See also

References

Printed Sources

External links