Betar

Chamusca Steel Bridge over the Tagus River

• Location: Chamusca, Santarém, Portugal
• Solution: Bridges, Asset Management
• Type: Road bridges, Rehabilitation
• Promoter: Infraestruturas de Portugal SA (ex Estradas de Portugal, EPE)
• Client: Infraestruturas de Portugal SA (ex Estradas de Portugal, EPE)
• Scope: Reinforcement and Rehabilitation Design, Inspection, Safety Assessment, Geometric Survey, Anomaly Mapping and Material Testing
• Project: 2002/ 2005
• Construction: 2007/ 2008
• Photography: Infraestruturas de Portugal / Eng. Manuel Almeida (Betar Consultores)
• Contractor: Conduril-Engenharia, S.A.
• Dimension: 756m long
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The bridge connects the two banks of the Tagus River in a total length of 756m divided in eleven spans. The end spans have 57.1 m and the inner spans have 71.3 m.

The intervention carried out consisted of a geometric survey, a detailed bridge inspection and underwater inspection, and finally, the detailed design of the rehabilitation and strengthening of the bridge.

The bridge deck is a superstructure steel box system made by two main truss girders, connected at the top and bottom by bracing systems. At the bottom there is a steel grid which supports the reinforced concrete slab.

New high damping bearings were placed in piers and abutments, lowering the structure response due to seismic action. It was necessary to strengthen the piers base and its foundations.