Bacalan-Bastide Bridge: they’re off!

9 December 2010 - Projects update and handover - France

On 9 December in Bordeaux (south-west France), in the presence of Alain Juppé, the city’s mayor, the foundation stone was laid for the Bacalan-Bastide Bridge, to be built on a design-build basis by GTM Sud-Ouest TP GC and GTM Sud (subsidiaries of VINCI Construction France, leader of the consortium), with Cimolaï supplying the steel framework.
This structure, a vertical-lift bridge linking the neighbourhoods of Bacalan (left bank) and Bastide (right bank), has been designed as a major urban thoroughfare providing a crossing over the river Garonne 2 km downstream of the city centre.
45 metres wide and 433 metres long, it will have a lifting central span (length: 117 m; weight: 3,500 t) that can be raised between four towers (height: 80 m): in the raised position, it provides a 106 metre wide shipping channel with a 53 metre clearance.
The bridge has been designed for use by all modes of transport: light vehicles and HGVs (local traffic) on 2 x 2 lanes, as well as public transport on 2 dedicated lanes. To the outer side of the four towers, wide curved footbridges, separated from the roadway for vehicular traffic, will be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists.