General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge

Design and construction

Made of reinforced and prestressed concrete, the cable-stayed bridge spans 8.678 km from shore to shore. The five main spans are each 235 m long. They are supported from 92 m tall towers, and provide 46 m of clearance to the water below. The bridge carries only vehicles.

The competition to design the bridge started in 1957 and was won by Juan Francisco Otaola Pavan and his partner Oscar Benedetti, Venezuelan civil engineers and owners of Precomprimido C.A., with the design of Riccardo Morandi, an Italian civil engineer. While Morandi designed the bridge, it was Otaola and Benedetti who made the structural and budget calculations, which in part with Otaola's demand for the project to be done by at least 50% of Venezuelan companies and workforce, secured the winning bid for the Venezuelan government. Precomprimido's was the only concrete design out of twelve entries, and was expected to be less expensive to maintain, as well as providing valuable experience of prestressed concrete technology for Venezuela. Precomprimido's construction was aided by several international companies, primarily Julius Berger as well as Grün & Bilfinger, Bauboag AG, Philipp Holzmann AG, Wayss & Freytag and K Ingeniería.

According to eminent bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux:

History

It was opened on 24 August 1962 by the then-president of Venezuela Romulo Betancourt.

In April 1964, parts of the bridge collapsed after a collision with the tanker Esso Maracaibo, causing the deaths of seven people.

The construction of a second cable-stayed bridge has been proposed since 1982, with a series of studies made since 2000. The cost of the new bridge has been estimated at US$440m, to be largely privately financed via tolls.link no longer workshttp://www.comlago.com.ve/proyectos/swf-nuevopuente-en.html

The bridge's structural integrity received heightened concern after the August 2018 collapse of a stayed pier on a similar bridge, Ponte Morandi in Genoa, Italy. Both bridges were designed by Riccardo Morandi.

References

• Dupré, Judith: "Bridges", Könemann, 1998,
• Virlogeux, Michel: "Bridges with Multiple Cable Stayed Spans", Structural Engineering International, 1/2001

Notes

References

1. "Maracaibo Bridge".
2. "Venezuela Tuya - Maracaibo".
3. Virlogeux, p.61
4. Dupré, p. 91
5. {{cite AV media. link
6. (24 August 2018). "Hace 56 años fue inaugurado el puente sobre el Lago de Maracaibo". [[El Universal (Caracas).
7. "The collision between "Esso Maracaibo" & the Bridge".