The President of Colombia, Iván Duque, along with Pedro Sigüenza (Chief Executive Officer of Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructure) and other figures from the political and business worlds, have opened today the new Pumarejo Bridge over the River Magdalena in Barranquilla (Colombia), which has been constructed by Sacyr.
With a span of 2,173 meters, it is one of Colombia’s longest cable-stayed bridges, and the cable-stayed bridge with the widest deck of any bridge in Latin America: 38.1 meters.
This is the first time the technologically advanced construction methods adopted by Sacyr have been used in the country. These include the use of the launching gantry method for the construction of the bridge, which has enabled the work to be carried out more efficiently and has reduced the timescales for construction.
This work for Invías [Colombia’s National Roads Institute], undertaken by Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructure, will improve connections, and the navigability of the River Magdalena, by allowing higher tonnage vessels to pass through. Vessels with a height of up to 45 meters can pass beneath the bridge.
Pumarejo has two three-lane carriageways (each 2.25 kilometers in length), one kilometer of viaducts and access roads, 3.2 kilometers of pedestrian walkways, and 3.2 kilometers of cycle lanes. The length of the cable-stayed section is 800 meters, and the total length is 2,173 meters, making it the longest bridge of its type in Colombia.
Principal features:
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Length of the main bridge: 2,173 m.
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Width of the deck: 38.1 m.
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Length of the main cable-stayed span: 380 m.
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Reinforced steel: 33,000 tons (equivalent to the weight of 4.5 Eiffel Towers)
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Concrete: 48,900 m3 used in pile caps and stacks (equivalent to the volume of 20 Olympic swimming pools).
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Launching gantry: 1,400 tons.
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Height of the pylons: 133.5 m.
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Maximum navigation clearance: Height 45 m: Width 300 m.
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Total concrete: 181,295 m3
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Investment: 800 thousand million pesos (215 million euros).
Employment
A total of 5,600 jobs were generated during the four-year period of the project. At the peak of activity, the number of people working on the bridge reached 1,500. Almost 80% of the workers were from the local catchment area.
Sacyr has infrastructure projects under development in Colombia to a value of almost 3,000 million dollars. Among the most important are four roads under construction by Sacyr Concessions as part of the Colombian Government’s Fourth Generation (4G) projects. The company’s workforce in Colombia is in excess of 8,000.
