Zárate–Brazo Largo Bridge
The Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridges are two identical cable-stayed road and railway bridges in Argentina, that crosses the Paraná River (Paranà Guazù and Paranà de las Palmas) between the cities of Zárate, province of Buenos Aires, and Brazo Largo, province of Entre Ríos.
The bridges have a suspended length of 550 metres (1,800 ft), with a main span of 330 metres (1,080 ft). Its pylons are 110 metres (360 ft) high, and its deck depth is 2.6 metres (8.5 ft). They were built between 1972 and 1978 on design of italian engineer Fabrizio de Miranda, and rehabilitated in 1998. They are the first long span railway cable-stayed bridges in the world.
Zárate-Brazo Largo links the north of Buenos Aires with the southern part of the Argentine Mesopotamia, and also, by extension, Argentina with Uruguay and Brazil. The road link has four lanes. The main span is 50 metres (160 ft) over the water level of the Paraná, which allows the pass of very large ships. It is one of only two such bridges over the Paraná, the other being the more recent Rosario-Victoria Bridge (2003).
References
- (it) Baglietto E., Casirati M., Castoldi A., De Miranda F., Sammartino R., 1976, Ponti Zarate-Brazo Largo: modelli matematici e strutturali del comportamento statico e dinamico, in "Costruzioni Metalliche", 4/1976.
- (it) De Miranda F., 1980, I ponti strallati di grande luce, Zanichelli Bologna (I), pp. 231-246.