Places
Casa da Arquitectura/Ivo Tavares Studio
Tours
Sat 10h00, Prof. Filipe Magalhães (FEUP) / Sat 11h30, Engineer Moutinho Cardoso / Sat 14h30, Engineer Carrasquinha de Freitas
Maximum 25 people per visit
Reservation required
No wheelchair access
Photography allowed
Reservations
Description
The São João bridge was the first of the crossings between Porto and Gaia to be built during Portuguese democracy. This bridge was inaugurated in 1991 to replace the D. Maria Pia railway bridge (1877) which, due to load and speed limitations and the fact that it was single-track, could no longer effectively handle the heavy railway traffic in Porto. Engineer Edgar Cardoso was the author of this bridge, which took seven years to build (1984-1991) and used a sliding formwork construction system, which was an innovation at the time but has since become a standard system in world construction. The São João bridge is 1,140 metres long and is built as a continuous multiple portico of prestressed reinforced concrete, with side pillars and three spans: two side spans of 125 metres and a central span of 250 metres. In 1991 the size of the centre span set a world record for bridges of this type. (Teresa Novais and Margarida Quintã, OHP’24)
Location
Rua Fonte da Rija - Quebrantões (acesso pelo portão azul por baixo da ponte)
Directions: Google Maps / Apple Maps
Public Transport
Subway: Line D - General Torres
Bus: STCP 904, 905 / UNIR 9002, 9007, 9015, 9052, 9058, 9205, 9206
Train: General Torres