Viaduct over the Fiumarella river

Abstract

The viaduct over the Fiumarella river, which links Catanzaro and the Two Seas lines of communication, has recently been opened to the public. The central arch has a theoretical span of 231 m and a maximum rise of 62 m. It bridges a river, and is made of reinforced concrete. The cross section is a hollow rectangle. The arch supports a palisade of inclined, slender columns, upon which rests the deck. This is sufficiently wide to accommodate a pavement, 10.5 m wide, and two sidewalks, each 1.5 m wide. This project is remarkable because of the slender, logical design of each of its structural components, and also because the columns have a slope of 15° 30' with respect to the vertical. This inclination causes the columns to transmit to the outer surface of the arch loading components which tend to improve the stability of the bridge. Near the springers, the arch branches out into two legs, which at the base are distanced 22 m apart. This arrangement gives a better distribution of the loads on the foundations. The central span consists of two independent arches, the box section of which is 7.5x6.6 m at the springers, and 5.25x2 m at the crown. The neutral axis of the arch, whose total length is 274 m, corresponds to a fifth degree curve, such that at many points it is coincident with the funicular of forces due its own weight. Only at certain points is there some discontinuity, due to the concentrated loads and the corrections which have been applied to allow for the elastoplastic deformation of the material.