Caption
The bridge of Rio - Antirio connects Peloponnese with the Western Sterea Hellas and is found in the junction of two big national road axes: P.A.TH.E., the highway connecting the three biggest Greek cities: Patras, Athens, Thessalonica, and that of the Ionian Road, the highway that runs through the western regions of the country. The bridge will contribute considerably in the aid of beams of Western Greece with the remainder country, allowing in Patras to constitute a dynamic metropolitan centre in the region. Technical characteristics: Rio-Antirio Bridge is the biggest cable stayed bridge of multiple openings in the world, with a length of 2.252 metres (2.883 metres with the addition of bridges of access at each end) and with three central openings of 560 metres and two lateral ones of 286 metres, as well as with a unique base in a depth of under 65 m. below the surface of the sea. Hanged in four pylons in the sea and supported in two akrovathra(piers) at each coast, her deck with a width of 27,2 metres, allocates two lanes of circulation (plus a hard shoulder) per direction and is continuous in all the length and completely hanged from the heads of four pylons with 368 cables, distributed per 12 metres at length of deck in eight teams. Some 40 kilometres of cables were used of a total weight of 5.000 tons. Each pylon has a max height of 227 metres and a weight of about 170.000 tons. The environmental characteristics of the region, as are the big depth of foundation, the strong seismic activity coupled by the posible tectonic movement, the mediocre quality of subsoil in the seabed of sea, all dictated imposition of particularly specialised methods of manufacture, creating a "worldwide originality"..And if one adds the cost of nearly one billion US dollars, then it has to be something..original !