Alameda Station & Bridge, Valencia, Spain



Architect
Santiago Calatrava 
Date Built
1995
Location
Carrer de Justicia
Description
Also known as the Pont de l"Exposicio, the Alameda bridge links the city centre of Valencia with the university district by spanning 130 metres across the dry river bed, now a park, of the River Turia. 



(The image above is from the Wikimedia Commons website and is shown here under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence.  It was originally posted on Panarimo by radwoc.  Details off the licence can be seen by clicking on the image)

Beneath the bridge is the Alameda Metro station.  Both structures were designed by Santiago Calatrava, a local Valencian architect.





The bridge and the station were constructed simultaneously and when the station was completed the bridge was winched into position.  Santiago Calatrava's website explains that, ".... The steel bridge structure employs an arch inclined at an 70-degree angle, made up of two basic tubes of constant yet different diameter, joined by regularly-spaced welded webs. To ensure the stability of the offset arch, rigid tension arms are placed at regular intervals of 5.84 meters (19 feet). The vehicle deck, comprising of four consecutive cells is designed for maximum rigidity, while the pedestrian decks are cantilevered off to each side. The total length of the bridge is 163 meters (534.6 feet), with a maximum span of 130 meters (426.4 feet)."



The subway station is aligned along the same longitudinal axis as the bridge.  "The platforms can be reached via elevators housed in the buttresses of the bridge and via escalators and stairs that are accessed through mechanical doors. When open, these doors frame the entrances; when closed, they are flush with the paving, thus sealing the station. At night, light filters up through the glass inlay to gently illuminate the bridge. A simple local cladding made of broken white tiles is used for the wall surfaces. Below grade, the side walls are hollow core to prevent ground water seepage."