Vasco Da Gama Bridge, Longest Bridge in Europe


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Vasco Da Gama Bridge
	The Vasco Da Gama Bridge is an important bridge of Portugal. It is a cable stayed bridge that is built on the river Tagus near Lisbon. This bridge is considered to be the longest bridge in Europe and has a length of 17.2km and 0.829 km. The Vasco Da Gama bridge was opened to the public on March 29, 1998. The bridge was built to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Vacso Da Gama's discovery of sea route from Europe to India. The Bridge has 6 road lanes. The speed limit for these lanes is 120km/h. Only there is 1 lane which has a speed limit of 100km/hr for the vehicles. During the foggy days, the speed limit if the vehicles is reduced to 90km/hr. The government has planned to increase the lanes to 8 in the future. The daily traffic which uses this bridge is around 52,000.

The various sections of the Vasco Da Gama Bridge has the following sections:

Main bridge - cement pillars: 150 m-high; free height for navigation in high tides: 45 m; main span: 420 m; side spans: 203 m each (total length: 829 m);

Central viaduct - height from 14 m to 30 m 6.351 m; 80 pre-fabricated sections 78 m-long; 81 pillars up to 95 m-deep;

South viaduct - 85 pillars, 3.825 m; 45-m sections; 84 sections

South accesses -includes the toll plaza (18 gates) and two service areas, 3.895 m

North accesses - 945 m

North viaduct - 11 sections, 488 m

Expo viaduct - 12 sections, 672 m

The Vasco Da Gama bridge is so long that the construction was split into 4 parts. Around 3,300 workers were employed to build the the bridge. It took around 18 months to complete the project of constructing the bridge. The bridge is considered to have a life expectancy of 120 years.

Major South European Tourist Destinations