Assut de l'Or Bridge

Bridge in Valencia, Spain

39°27′17.3″N 00°20′58.7″W / 39.454806°N 0.349639°W / 39.454806; -0.349639Carriessix vehicular traffic lanes, two tram lanes, and two pedestrian cycling lanesCrossesTurìa Gardens (former riverbed of Turia River)LocaleValencia, SpainCharacteristicsDesigncable-stayed bridge with a backward curved pylonTotal length180 metresHeight125 metres (making it the highest point of the city)No. of spansone with 29 cable staysHistoryArchitectSantiago CalatravaConstruction cost59.9 million EurosInaugurated12/12/2008Location Map

The Assut de l'Or Bridge (Valencian: Pont de l'Assut de l'Or, Spanish: Puente de la Presa del Oro) is a white single-pylon cable-stayed bridge in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain, designed by Valencian architect and civil engineer Santiago Calatrava and completed in December 2008. The name l'Assut de l'Or is Valencian for the Dam of the Gold and refers to a dam that was located nearby, although locally it is referred to as El Jamonero (The Ham Holder) or Pont de l'Arpa, Spanish: Puente del Arpa (The Harp Bridge). Calatrava called it the Serreria Bridge.^[1]

Design

The bridge crosses the Turia Gardens in southeast Valencia, Spain near the east end of the City of Arts and Sciences complex.^[2] Its design is a variant of Santiago Calatrava's 1992 design of a cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge in Seville, Spain. In the Serreria bridge, the pylon is curved backward and back-stayed to concrete counterweights in the roadway. The aesthetic effect of the Serreria bridge arises in part from the curved pylon and the 29 parallel cables supporting the bridge deck, accented at night by spot lighting of the cables and the pylon. The bridge deck has two carriageways, three lanes each for cars and one additional lane for a tramway, and a carriageway for only pedestrian and cycle traffic along the middle spine of the deck by the cable stays.