Rio–Antirrio Bridge | Increases Economic Growth in Greece

👉 Visit Structures Insider's homepage for more stories.👈

Since its first year of operation, the bridge recorded 1.2 million additional transits between the town of Rio in Peloponnese and Antirrio in the north of the Gulf of Patras.

The 2,880-metre-long bridge dramatically improves access to and from the Peloponnese, which could previously be reached only by ferry.

The Observatory says that this resulted in an overall economic benefit for the drivers estimated at around 400 million euros to date, with an additional benefit of more than one billion in the period 2017-2032.

The Rion-Antirion Bridge’s pylons are made from reinforced concrete and pylon legs range from 25m to 45m above sea level. The pylon heads reach a total of 160m above sea level. Because of the high seismic activity of the area, the Rion-Antirion Bridge required seabed reinforcement via 200 hollow steel pipes (for each pier) driven into the seabed and topped with gravel.

A 27.2m-wide deck contains two traffic lanes plus a safety lane and pedestrian walkway in both directions. The structure of the deck is composite with a steel frame of two longitudinal 2.2m-high plate girders with transverse plate girders.

Foundations consist of large diameter (90 m) caissons, resting on the seabed (see figure 3). The top 20 m of soils are rather heterogeneous and of low mechanical characteristics. To provide sufficient shear strength to these soil strata, which have to carry large seismic forces coming from structural inertia forces and hydrodynamic water pressures, the upper soil layer is reinforced by inclusions.

These inclusions are hollow steel pipes, 25 to 30 m long, 2 m in diameter, driven into the upper layer at a regular spacing of 7 to 8 m (depending on the pier); about 250 pipes are driven in at each pier location. They are topped by a 3 m thick, properly levelled gravel layer, on which the foundation's rest.

Source: Greek Reporter, Road Traffic Technology

What's the most impressive ancient structure in the world?

New York City is planning to expand Manhattan into East River to battle climate change

Concrete variable radius arch dam explained