Rosario-Victoria Bridge (in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Puente Rosario-Victoria) is the informal name of the physical connection between the Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 cities of Rosario (province of Santa Fe

Santa Fe Province

The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...

) and Victoria

Victoria, Entre Ríos

Victoria is a city in the southwest of the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. It is located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, opposite Rosario, Santa Fe, to which it is connected since 2003 by the Rosario-Victoria Bridge .The site of a 1750 defeat of a native uprising and an 1810 oratory to...

 (province of Entre Ríos

Entre Ríos Province

Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....

).

This roadlink is composed of several bridge

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

s, viaduct

Viaduct

A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...

s and earth-filled sections. It crosses the main course of the Paraná River

Paraná River

The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...

 and touches down on several islands of the Paraná Delta

Paraná Delta

The Paraná Delta is the delta of the Paraná River in Argentina. The Paraná flows north–south and becomes an alluvial basin between the Argentine provinces of Entre Ríos and Santa Fe, then emptying into the Río de la Plata....

 in the way.

Works on the project began in 1998, but they were repeatedly interrupted due to lack of continued funding from the national and the provincial state, especially in the worst part of the Argentine economic crisis

Argentine economic crisis (1999-2002)

The Argentine economic crisis was a financial situation, tied to poilitical unrest, that affected Argentina's economy during the late 1990s and early 2000s...

 of 2001. Public transit access to the bridge was opened on May 20, 2003.

The link between the two cities spans a total of 59.4 kilometers (37 mi). The total length of the various bridges and their viaducts is 12.2 km (7.5 mi). The main cable-stayed bridge

Cable-stayed bridge

A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns , with cables supporting the bridge deck....

 spans 330 meters (1,082 ft). Among the materials used were about 250,000 cubic meters (326,987 yd³) of concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

, 63,000 tons of ADN-420 type steel, and 17,618 tons of asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

. The access to the main bridge on the western side is in the northern border of Rosario, on the limit with the city of Granadero Baigorria

Granadero Baigorria

Granadero Baigorria is a city in the south of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, located directly north of Rosario, on the western shore of the Paraná River, and forming part of the Greater Rosario metropolitan area...

. The official name of the main bridge (cable-stayed) is Nuestra Señora del Rosario (Our Lady of Rosario).

The project was executed by a private company (Puentes del Litoral S. A.), which was granted subsidies from the national state and the provincial states of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, totalling about $

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

385 million . The company received the operation and maintenance concession of the bridge for 25 years.

Until the opening of this bridge, the only road link between the two provinces, and between two commercially very important regions of Argentina, was the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel

Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel

The Raúl Uranga – Carlos Sylvestre Begnis Subfluvial Tunnel , formerly known as the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel, is an underwater road tunnel that connects the provinces of Entre Ríos and Santa Fe in Argentina, crossing the Paraná River between the capital of Entre Ríos, Paraná, and Santa Cándida...

 which joins the cities of Santa Fe

Santa Fe, Argentina

Santa Fe is the capital city of province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies opposite the city of Paraná, to which it is linked by the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel. The city is also connected by canal with the...

 and Paraná, about 120 kilometers (75 mi) north from Rosario. The southern Paraná is crossed by another cable-stayed bridge, the Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridge

Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridge

The Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridges are two cable-stayed road and railway bridges in Argentina, crossing the Paraná River between the cities of Zárate, Buenos Aires Province, and Brazo Largo, Entre Ríos Province....

, joining Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires Province

The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...

 province.

External links

• www.roadtraffic-technology.com Rosario-Victoria Cable-Stayed Bridge, Argentina
• Rosario's tourism agency page on the bridge
• RosarioTuristica.com.ar Puente-Rosario Victoria
• A monograph on the bridge
• Pictures of the bridge (Flickr
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