The Royal Bridge of Badajoz is our first large-scale work and our first cable-stayed bridge as a result of the First Prize of the International Competition that the Badajoz City Council opened to all professionals of the European Union in 1990. The Competition was presented secretly with a motto. The motto chosen for our project was “Al-Cántara.” From our beginnings, our admiration for the Alcántara bridge. Years later, in 2018, we would win the Competition for the New Alcántara Bridge project next to the Roman bridge.

From the beginning, we were clear that we had to propose a great image, the great symbol of the city with which everyone could identify.

Badajoz has historically been a frontier military city concealed behind its concentric Roman, Muslim, medieval and eighteenth-century Vauban walls. The most significant destruction of its heritage was not caused by successive wars but by the real estate boom at the end of the 20th century. The city lacked a powerful icon that its citadel or its cathedral failed to provide.

THE IMAGE SYMBOL OF THE CITY. The bridge goes beyond its function of mere infrastructure and becomes the icon of Badajoz in operation to transform the skyline analogous to the appearance of the towers of the Gothic cathedrals in the XIII century.

THE SCALE – THE COLOSSUS.

THE GATE – ARCH OF TRIUMPH.

THE LIMIT.

FIGURE BACKGROUND.

CABLES HARP.

THE BIPOLARITY IN THE CITY.

THE NIGHT IMAGE – THE DAY IMAGE.

INTEGRATION IN THE ENVIRONMENT.

THE TECTONIC.

THE STRUCTURE.

It is a cable-stayed bridge with a single plane of central cables with a length of 320 m and a single delta pylon, with a main span of 168 m and the second span of 112 m and a 40 m back-stay span with a 24 m deck width. Pylon and deck are solved in white concrete with steel ribs. The deck is a hollow box section of prestressed concrete, from which the modulated transverse ribs depart every 4 m.

The stay-stressing is axial to the axis of the deck and, therefore, only active against longitudinal bending and shear stresses, the torsional efforts are entrusted to the deck. The deck has been resolved with high-strength 500kp / cm2 concrete prestressed as a box section with cantilevered metal ribs.

The central pylon is the critical design element, both formally and structurally. The choice of the pylon in A, once the axial cable-stay has been decided, avoids the deck widths. Straight pylons located on the axis of the median generate an unuseful widening. Furthermore, its behaviour, when faced with transverse stresses, such as wind, is very effective.

The back-stacks piers assume the mission of limiting the displacement at the head of the pylon. The bridge works, the better, the more limited this displacement is. The back-satay span has a dimension of 40 m with high flexural rigidity, which makes it very efficient.

The bridge was built using temporary piers to support it during the execution of the deck, later when the cables were stressed, the bridge was raised, and the provisional piers were demolished.