There are infrastructures that, even if you have them nearby, . The Vasco da Gama Bridge, in Lisbon, falls squarely into that category: with about 16 kilometers in length, it is considered the longest bridge in Europe and is a key piece for crossing the Tagus estuary without collapsing traffic in the Portuguese capital. This is how he reviews it, presenting it as one of those megaprojects that still impress today.
The history of the bridge is linked to a very practical objective. When it was planned, the idea was to relieve the pressure on the veteran 25 de Abril Bridge (the traditional large axis towards Lisbon). The solution was to build a new passage to the east of the city that would better connect the northern area with municipalities such as Montijo and Alcochetesomething that, as explained, ended up boosting commerce and tourism in those areas by improving access.
What is striking is the speed with which it was executed. The work began in 1995 and was ready for the 1998 World Exhibition. The name also plays with historical symbolism: Its inauguration coincided, the navigator who opened a sea route between Europe and India.
In engineering terms, the bridge was designed with an eye toward the long term. There is talk of an expected useful life of 120 years and a resistance designed for extreme conditions, with the capacity to withstand very strong winds and high intensity earthquakes (). It has six lanes and a speed limit that, under normal conditions, reaches 75 mph (approximately equivalent to 120 km/h), reducing to 56 mph (about 90 km/h) in bad weather.
The construction was also a logistical deployment: thousands of workers, tons of steel and deep foundations in the river bed. The design highlights the cable-stayed section, with H-shaped pylons that rise up to 150 meters. And, as the route crosses an environmentally sensitive area (the Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve), a specific program of environmental measures was applied during the works.
The general director of Lusoponte (project management company), António Rosa, summarized the dimension of the challenge with a phrase that makes it clear: “Building a bridge of this magnitude was not an easy task. “We face enormous technical challenges, such as ensuring structural stability and coordinating complex logistics over such a large area.”
