Rande Bridge

Historia

The Rande Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge near Vigo, Pontevedra, Spain. It spans Vigo Ria across the Rande Strait, linking the municipalities of Redondela and Moaña.HistoryIt was designed by Italian engineer Fabrizio de Miranda, the Spaniard Florencio del Pozo (who was also in charge of its foundations), and Alfredo Passaro. The bridge was built in 1978. It forms part of the 'Atlantic Motorway' (AP-9). It was exclusively a toll bridge until 2006, when it became a shadow toll stretch.It has a length of 1,604 metres, its pillars have a height of 148 metres and its main span measures 401 metres. Although it was not the biggest (cable-stayed) span in the world when it opened, it was the longest span with more than two lanes. The bridge, which links Redondela and Moaña through the Strait of Rande, is an emblematic piece of engineering in the ria of Vigo.It currently carries around 50,000 vehicles per day. It is believed that there will be congestion problems in the near future, so the widening alternative has already been studied and projected. Since its opening to traffic in 1981, more than 230 million vehicles have passed through it. It did cost 3.658 million pesetas to build at the time.