La Porta d'Europa Bascule Bridge in Barcelona, Spain

Due to an increasing traffic volume and an extension of the docks, the Barcelona Port Authority decided to open a new harbour entrance, across an existing jetty. Consequently, part of the harbour will become an island. In order to ensure road traffic between the island and the mainland, while retaining the existing harbour entrance, the Port Authority decided to build a movable bridge over the new entrance. Initially, a minimum horizontal clearance of 85 m was envisaged. Later, in view of the continuously growing size of ships using the harbour, this requirement was increased to 100 m. Taking advantage of the available space on either side of the waterway, two 300-m-long approach viaducts with 6.5% slopes were built. The movable bridge in its closed position has a clearance of 22 m, which allows smaller ships to pass underneath.