El viaducto de La Arena, en la autopista del Cantábrico

The La Arena Viaduct in the northern Spain highway

The Spanish highway Autopista del Cantábrico is the new road link, partially under construction, that, from the French border to La Coruña in Galicia, will connect the regions of the North Coast of Spain, including the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias. The viaduct here described has been built in the Basque Country, not far from Bilbao, in order to allow the highway to cross a marsh valley in the vicinity of the sea. It consists in a continuous girder of composite cross section, with 5 typical spans of 105 m and two end spans of 70 m, cable stayed in a radiated pattern of 5 central pylons. The construction procedure, as indicated avobe, was rather original and conceived to erct the bridge in a time period of only 18 months.