Leonardo Bridge
Montevarchi, Italy
Part of the broader renovation of the regional road N. 69, it was built to solve the traffic congestion problem afflicting the area. Legend tells that the landscape of the area is the one painted behind the Mona Lisa, therefore for this reason and for the engineering peculiarity of the structure, the bridge has been dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci.
The Leonardo Bridge is a double-arch bridge designed by the Spanish studio of architects Carlo Fernandez Casado SL. The distribution of the spans had to consider the geology of the ground, the flow of the Arno River and the need to climb over the Sun Motorway A1: for these reasons the 475 meters long structure has twelve spans with two inclined arches, in correspondence of the two main spans, joined at the top by mean of two intermediate connections. These arches have been assembled on site by using temporary towers and are connected to a 22.6-meter-wide deck through lower connection placed every 5 meters. Overall, the steel structures weight reaches 2.584 tons. A design criterion was the search for a solution that did not involve any visual or scenic interruption of the surrounding landscape, therefore this light structure leaves the view wide and unhindered.
