The Arriaca Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge over the Henares River, in the city of Guadalajara, in a newly growing area. It takes its name from the first Iberian settlement there was: “Arriaca,” which means “stone path,” and with which the Romans would later baptize present-day Guadalajara.
The bridge was born with the vocation of “URBAN LANDMARK” capable of creating the image of modern Guadalajara, becoming the symbol of a dynamism the city had never experienced before. A “High-Tech” image bridge to show the potential of the industrial and urban areas of Guadalajara.
It is a 201 m long cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of 100,50 meters and two side spans of 42,00 m and 58,50 m. The width of the deck is 30 meters, distributed in two 12,50 m lanes, a median of 3,00 m to locate the pylon and the cable anchors, and finally, spaces to locate the protection defences.
The deck has been resolved with a composite section in the main span and double mixed action in the back-stay spans. The section of the deck is a steel box, 2.50 m deep, 9.00 m lower base, and 11.00 m open-top base. The stay is performed with a single plane of cables on the axis of the deck. The image is not distorted depending on the angle of view.
The pylon is designed as a single steel shaft with a section of 3.00 x 2.55 m. It is formally resolved with an “H” in the longitudinal direction of the bridge twinned with a double “T” in the transverse direction. Its total height is 57.70 m measured from the top face of the deck.
The construction was carried out using provisional concrete piles that were later demolished when the cables were stressed.