The Viaducts on the Savona-Ceva Motor Road

Abstract

The Savone-Ceva motor road is the last section of the great European highway, known as the seventh meridian. It extends from Hamburg to Savona, crosses Switzerland, and enters Italy at Saint Bernard's. This last section has a mean height of more than 400 m, and all the characteristics of a mountain road. It involves a large number of tunnels, cuttings, and embankments, thanks to which the curves and slopes are gentle. The structures supporting the road are of many kinds, and each type has been separately allocated to contractors, although an initial project was prepared by the technical directors of the whole scheme. This initial project included the choice of the road axis and the obtention of information on the subsoil. Along the more important sections of the road special soundings were carried out, so that there was a considerably unitj/ of initial planning. The arrangement for awarding contracts involved a number of conditions and data which the bidding contractors could check over the proposed site of the motor road. One of the principal conditions required the use of supports in the form of groups of columns with a trapezoidal plan distribution. The purpose of this was to fit better the decks of the large number of viaduct decks, which have a curved outline. As there are many such viaducts, in this article the author summarizes the more significant details, and describes the most important general features.