Centennial Bridge, Panama

Last updated
Centennial Bridge
Centenario1 (1).jpg
Coordinates 9°1′48.19″N79°38′8.47″W / 9.0300528°N 79.6356861°W / 9.0300528; -79.6356861
Carries6 lanes of the Pan-American Highway
Crosses Culebra Cut of the Panama Canal
Locale Panama
Official namePuente Centenario
Characteristics
Design Cable-stayed bridge
Total length1,052 m (3,451 ft)
Longest span420 metres (1,380 ft)
Clearance below 80 m (260 ft)
History
Construction cost$120 million USD [1]
Opened15 August 2004
Location
Centennial Bridge, Panama

Panama's Centennial Bridge (Spanish : Puente Centenario) is a major bridge crossing the Panama Canal. It was built to supplement the overcrowded Bridge of the Americas and to replace it as the carrier of the Pan-American Highway. Upon its opening in 2004, it became the second permanent crossing of the canal.

Contents

Description

The Centennial Bridge is the second major road crossing of the Panama Canal, the first being the Bridge of the Americas. (Small service bridges are built in the lock structures at Miraflores and Gatún Locks, but these bridges are only usable when the lock gates are closed and have limited capacity.)

The Centennial Bridge is located 15 km (9.3 mi) north of the Bridge of the Americas and crosses the Culebra Cut (Gaillard Cut) close to the Pedro Miguel locks. New freeway sections, connecting Arraijan in the west to Cerro Patacon in the east via the bridge, significantly alleviate congestion on the Bridge of the Americas.

History

The Bridge of the Americas, which opened in 1962, was the only major road crossing of the Panama Canal. The traffic over this bridge was originally around 9,500 vehicles per day; however, this expanded over time, and by 2004 the bridge was carrying 35,000 vehicles per day.

Since the bridge represented a major bottleneck in the Pan-American Highway, Panama's Ministry of Public Works requested tenders for a second canal crossing in October 2000. [1] [ unreliable source? ] The contract to build a replacement bridge was awarded in March 2002. An ambitious schedule of just 29 months was set for construction, so that the bridge could open on the 90th anniversary of the first ship transit of the Panama Canal by the cargo ship Ancon, on 15 August 1914. The bridge was named for Panama's centennial, which occurred on 3 November 2003.

The new bridge was designed by a joint venture between T.Y. Lin International and the Louis Berger Group Inc, and constructed by German-based Bilfinger Berger Ingenieurbau GmbH using resources from its Australian subsidiary Baulderstone Hornibrook. The architects were Elle Sokolow working as an Architect for Geiger-Berger Associates and the Boston-based transportation architect Miguel Rosales from Rosales + Partners who created the concept and initial aesthetic designs for the Panama-Centennial Bridge. Structural engineering contracts were awarded to Leonhardt, Andrä and Partner.

The bridge was inaugurated on schedule on 15 August 2004, although it was opened for traffic on 2 September 2005, when the new highways leading to it were finished. [2] [3]

Part of the access to the Centennial Bridge collapsed in December 2010, following heavy rain and flooding. [4] In November 2011 full traffic was restored. [5] Southbound on the Panama Canal approaching the Centennial Bridge.jpg

Construction

The Centennial Bridge, under construction, dwarfs the sailboat passing beneath it, whose mast is approximately 17 metres (56 feet) high. The pylon under construction is to be 184 metres (604 ft). Panama Canal Cent Bridge Building.jpeg
The Centennial Bridge, under construction, dwarfs the sailboat passing beneath it, whose mast is approximately 17 metres (56 feet) high. The pylon under construction is to be 184 metres (604 ft).

The bridge is a cable-stayed design with a total span of 1,052 m (3,451 ft). The main span is 420 m (1,380 ft) and clears the canal by 80 m (260 ft), allowing large vessels to pass below it. The bridge is supported by two towers, each 184 m (604 ft) high. The deck carries six lanes of traffic across the canal. [3]

The Centennial Bridge is designed to withstand the earthquakes which are frequently recorded in the canal area. It was built by the German construction firm Bilfinger.

The West Tower was built about 50 m inland to allow space for the future widening of the Panama Canal.

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Canal</span> Shipping route across Central America

The Panama Canal is an artificial 82-kilometre (51-mile) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, cutting across the Isthmus of Panama, and is a conduit for maritime trade. Locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial fresh water lake 26 meters (85 ft) above sea level, created by damming up the Chagres River and Lake Alajuela to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal. Locks then lower the ships at the other end. An average of 200,000,000 L (52,000,000 US gal) of fresh water is used in a single passing of a ship. The canal is threatened by low water levels during droughts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge</span> Cable-stayed bridge completed 2003 across the Charles River in Boston, United States

The Leonard P. ZakimBunker Hill Memorial Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge completed in 2003 across the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a replacement for the Charlestown High Bridge, an older truss bridge constructed in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable-stayed bridge</span> Type of bridge with cables directly from towers

A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers, from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern or a series of parallel lines. This is in contrast to the modern suspension bridge, where the cables supporting the deck are suspended vertically from the main cable, anchored at both ends of the bridge and running between the towers. The cable-stayed bridge is optimal for spans longer than cantilever bridges and shorter than suspension bridges. This is the range within which cantilever bridges would rapidly grow heavier, and suspension bridge cabling would be more costly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welland Canal</span> Ship canal in Ontario, Canada, connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie

The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Ontario, Canada, and part of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway. The canal traverses the Niagara Peninsula between Port Weller on Lake Ontario, and Port Colborne on Lake Erie, and was erected because the Niagara River—the only natural waterway connecting the lakes—was unnavigable due to Niagara Falls. The Welland Canal enables ships to ascend and descend the Niagara Escarpment, and has followed four different routes since it opened.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chesapeake & Delaware Canal</span> United States historic place

The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal is a 14-mile (22.5 km)-long, 450-foot (137.2 m)-wide and 35-foot (10.7 m)-deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swing bridge</span> Bridge which pivots around the mid-point

A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right. Small swing bridges as found over canals may be pivoted only at one end, opening as would a gate, but require substantial underground structure to support the pivot.

Panamax Largest ships that can transit the Panama Canal

Panamax and New Panamax are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". These requirements also describe topics like exceptional dry seasonal limits, propulsion, communications, and detailed ship design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodrow Wilson Bridge</span> Bascule bridge over the Potomac River

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, also known as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge or the Wilson Bridge, is a bascule bridge that spans the Potomac River between Alexandria, Virginia and Oxon Hill, Maryland in Prince George's County, Maryland. The original bridge was one of only a handful of drawbridges in the Interstate Highway System. It contained the only portion of the Interstate System owned and operated by the federal government until construction was completed and it was turned over to the Virginia and Maryland departments of transportation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seven Mile Bridge</span> Bridge in Florida, United States of America

The Seven Mile Bridge is a bridge in the Florida Keys, in Monroe County, Florida, United States. It connects Knight's Key in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. Among the longest bridges in existence when it was built, it is part of the Overseas Highway in the Keys, which is part of the 2,369-mile (3,813 km) U.S. Route 1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridge of the Americas</span> Road bridge in Panama spanning the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal

The Bridge of the Americas is a road bridge in Panama which spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Designed by Sverdrup & Parcel, it was completed in 1962 at a cost of US$20 million, connecting the north and south American land masses, connecting the American Continent. Two other bridges cross the canal: the Atlantic Bridge at the Gatun locks and the Centennial Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Ears Bridge</span> Bridge in Langley, British Columbia, Canada

The Golden Ears Bridge is a six-lane extradosed bridge in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia. It spans the Fraser River, connecting Langley on the south side with Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge on the north side. The bridge opened to traffic on June 16, 2009. The bridge replaced a previous ferry service several kilometers upstream and will be run by a private consortium, the Golden Crossing General Partnership, until June 2041.

The Saint John River High Level Crossing is a steel girder bridge crossing the Saint John River at Coytown, New Brunswick, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svinesund Bridge</span> Bridge in Swedish municipality of Strömstad, Norwegian municipality of Halden

The Svinesund Bridge is a through arch bridge crossing Iddefjord at Svinesund, and joining Sweden and Norway. Svinesund is a sound separating the Swedish municipality of Strömstad from the Norwegian municipality of Halden, and thus it is the border between Norway and Sweden in this region. The bridge is the westernmost border crossing between the two countries and carries the European route E6 which is a major traffic route in the area, connecting Oslo and the rest of Norway with Gothenburg, Malmö, Copenhagen and the rest of Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bilfinger</span> German construction and engineering company

Bilfinger SE is a European multinational company specialized in civil and industrial construction, engineering and services based in Mannheim, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Pflimlin Bridge</span> Bridge near Strasbourg

The Pierre Pflimlin Bridge is a 957-metre (3,140 ft) long motorway cantilever bridge over the river Rhine, with a main span measuring 205 metres (673 ft). It connects Germany and France, at Kehl and Strasbourg. It is named after Pierre Pflimlin, a former French prime minister, and was opened in 2002. It was funded by France, Germany and the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel Rosales</span> Guatemala-born American architect

Miguel Rosales is president and principal designer of Rosales + Partners, an architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. He specializes in bridge aesthetics and design. Some examples of these bridges include; Phyllis J. Tilley Memorial Bridge, Christina and John Markey Memorial Pedestrian Bridge, and Liberty Bridge at Falls Park on the Reedy River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty Bridge at Falls Park on the Reedy</span> Bridge in Greenville, South Carolina

The Liberty Bridge is a pedestrian bridge in Greenville, South Carolina. It is located at Falls Park on the Reedy, where it crosses the Reedy River above the Reedy River Falls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic Bridge, Panama</span> Bridge in Colón, Panama

The Atlantic Bridge is a road bridge in Colón, Panama spanning the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. Completed in 2019, it is the third bridge over the canal after the Bridge of the Americas and the Centennial Bridge, both on the Pacific side of the canal.

References

  1. 1 2 Puente Centenario - Second Panama Canal Crossing Archived October 23, 2005, at the Wayback Machine , from Road Traffic Technology. The span is incorrectly given as 320 m.
  2. (in Spanish) Apertura de Accesos al Segundo Puente sobre El Canal de Panamá, from La Chorrera
  3. 1 2 "Puente Centenario". Structurae. Retrieved 2013-09-19.
  4. "Rain Causes Panama Canal Bridge To Collapse". 2010-12-13. Archived from the original on 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
  5. "Centennial Bridge Access Road Reopened Today After Repairs - Panama Guide". Archived from the original on 2014-12-30. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  6. "ASBI Bridge Awards". www.asbi-assoc.org. Archived from the original on 2020-07-05. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  7. "American Council of Engineering Companies of California". www.acec-ca.org. Retrieved 2020-02-14.