The Rande bridge is a cable-stayed bridge opened to traffic on February 7, 1981 and joins the municipalities of Redondela and Moaña , leaving at the Domaio roundabout ( Moaña ) to join Vilaboa , the Corredor do Morrazo and the banks of the Strait of Rande , in the Vigo estuary 9 kilometers from the city of Vigo and 18 kilometers from the city of Pontevedra . It was designed by the Italian engineer Fabrizio de Miranda , the Spanish Florencio del Pozo (who was also in charge of the foundation) and byAlfredo Passaro . At the time of its construction, it was the second brightest bridge of its kind in the world. It is the first cable-stayed bridge to be extended in the world and it won the European Prize for the most outstanding metal construction in 1979.
It is part of the Atlantic highway and is located between kilometers 146 and 148 of it. Its construction cost 3,658 million pesetas . Since its opening to traffic in 1981, 231 million vehicles have passed through it, currently supporting a traffic of about 50,000 vehicles per day.
In 2011, it was decided to expand the bridge with two lanes, one in each direction, continuing the expansion to three lanes in each direction of the Atlantic highway, Galicia's main north-south road communication route. The expansion was carried out on the outside of the piers and without affecting the original bridge, which maintained the service throughout the work. The works lasted 32 months and were inaugurated on December 30, 2017.
The urban plan for Vigo and its metropolitan area developed by the architect Antonio Palacios in 1934 already contemplated the need to unite both banks of the Vigo estuary in an orderly manner . After the civil war , in 1946, Gerardo Campos, promoter of the Center for Tourist Initiatives, contemplated the construction of a bridge in the Rande Strait to join the two banks.
The construction of the Atlantic Highway in the 70s of the 20th century was the definitive milestone that led to the construction of the bridge over the Rande Strait. A cable-stayed bridge was proposed to cross the estuary by means of a deck of more than a kilometer and a half with a central span of almost 700 meters on two pillars of 128 m above the water surface. At the time it was the largest cable-stayed bridge built in the world.
The project authors were the engineers Florencio del Pozo, Fabrizio de Miranda and Alfredo Passaro, and the construction company was Acciona .
Construction work began in 1973 and ended four years later. After the construction of the accesses and the rest of the road, it was inaugurated in February 1981. Like the rest of the AP-9, of which it is part, the section was toll, being one of the most expensive. After various protests by users on both sides of the estuary and the adoption of various measures to lower the price of the estuary, it was adopted free of charge through an agreement between the central government chaired by Zapatero and the regional government presided over by Touriño at the time .
In 2008, providing for the collapse that the use of the infrastructure could reach due to the incessant increase in traffic, the expansion of the bridge was contemplated with an extra lane in each direction that could absorb about 95,000 vehicles per day.
In 2011, the construction agreement was signed between the Ministry of Public Works and Audasa (the infrastructure concessionaire), which provides for a construction period of 32 months. In May 2014, it went out to tender, with an execution period of 30 months, and was awarded to the joint venture formed by the Puentes y Dragados y Construcciones Group . In the BOE of January 2015 the contract is published and the works begin in February with an execution period of 23 months that in the end was extended to 34, being inaugurated on December 30, 2017 by the then president of the Spanish government Mariano Rajoy coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the completion of the original bridge.
In spring 2018 the entire bridge was painted white and a study was commissioned for a future expansion with two more lanes.
The Rande bridge is made up of the central bridge and two access viaducts with a total length of 1,558 m.
The central bridge is a cable-stayed metal bridge that rests on two pillars located in the bed of the estuary and with a height of 128 meters above the water level and directly cemented without modification of the rocky bottom.
The cable-stayed system for the arrangement of cables in a fan and in two planes that suspend the deck by means of straight cables anchored to the edge of it and at the heads of the pillars. The central section has a span of 400.14 m and is situated at a height of 48 meters above sea level, the sides have a span of 147.42 m. The width of the deck is 23.46 m with a depth of 2.46 m, which gives it a slim appearance. It carries two lanes for each direction of traffic.
The access viaducts, which have a total length of 863 meters, are made of two continuous box girders made of prestressed concrete.
Combining the bridge sections on piers and the cable-stayed bridge itself, which measures 694.98 m, the total length is 1604 m. The central span measures 401 m and the two lateral spans of the cable-stayed section measure 147 m each. The two pillars that support the cable-stayed section are H-shaped and have a total height of 118.60 m.
At the time of its inauguration it was the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world. It was also the longest bridge of any type in Spain, after the Santa Eulalia de Huelva Sifón-Bridge with a length of more than 2000 m. The position as the largest cable-stayed bridge in Spain was given to the Ingeniero Carlos Fernández Casado bridge (with a central span of 440 m) in 1983, although its total length is less than that of Rande and in terms of total length it has also been surpassed by other types of bridges. Despite this, it continues to be an emblematic engineering work of the Vigo estuary .
Until 2006 it was an exclusively toll section. In May of that year, 6 became a shadow toll section, financed 50% by the General State Administration and 50% by the Junta de Galicia .
In 2008, in view of the increase in traffic and the free passage over the bridge, the possible saturation of the infrastructure is expected and steps are being taken to expand it. In 2011 there was an approved project 7 to extend the bridge with two side boards on the outer flank of the main pillars, thus adding a new lane completely isolated from the rest of the highway in each direction of traffic, these lanes were used for access to the Morrazo peninsula. Finally, in February 2015, the work to widen the third lanes began, with an estimated investment of 107.9 million euros and they were inaugurated in January 2018 at a cost that exceeded 143 million euros.
In 2014 an agreement was reached between the Ministry of Development and the infrastructure concessionaire, the tender was held, which was won by the UTE formed by the Puentes y Calzadas y Dragrados y Construcciones Group and in January 2015 the contract was published in the BOE and in February the works begin that would end in December 2018. The project was carried out by the TYPSA Group through its subsidiary, MC2 Estudio de Ingeniería, which also took charge of the execution control, assistance to the construction management and work control.
The solution adopted, that of adding two separate lanes outside the piles, has allowed significant savings in cost and time to complete work. It takes advantage of the existing infrastructure, does not affect its use and avoids minimizing, as far as possible, the impact on the environment.
Two roads have been incorporated, one for each direction of travel, on the outside of the pillars. These carriageways are supported by metal boards supported on the existing one and hung by means of a tie-down system similar to the current one. They include free widths to allow the passage of vehicles in the event of an accident, as well as three zones that allow traffic to be transferred from the lateral to the central lanes and vice versa depending on the needs. The added lanes have a carriageway width of 3.5 meters.
These works were carried out through the use of auxiliary infrastructure that allowed the maritime access of the construction elements and the installation of the cranes and techniques necessary for the works. The bridge was open to traffic throughout the extension work. The environmental impact was also minimal both in the bridge and in the construction of the access roads, where the premise of minimal use of the occupied land was maintained.
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