Carentan Canal Bridge
Record: 615 m
Main Span Record: 85 m
Carentan Canal Bridge
The Carentan canal bridge is an engineering structure located in the commune of Carentan-les-Marais in France and opened on 6 June 1994.
This structure provides a 2 × 2 lane crossing of the national road 13 linking Caen to Cherbourg under the wet dock linking the port of Carentan and the sea.
Description
The 615-metre-long box-girder bridge1 is divided into three areas:
Two hoppers: 280 m to the west and 250 m to the east, these two open trench access areas are made of reinforced concrete structures.
The canal bridge itself, 85 m long, located under the canal: it consists of a monolithic caisson with two cells, prestressed longitudinally and resting on deep and semi-submerged foundations. In the transverse direction, the structure has a 19.60 m opening allowing 4 lanes of traffic with a 4.85 m height gauge.
Special features
At the lowest point, the roadway is located 10 metres below the level of the canal. In order to cope with the hydrostatic pressure resulting from the presence of a water table, the water is pumped out and discharged to the outside environment.
History
From 1992 to 1994, this project mobilised between 60 and 80 people per day, and represented more than 300,000 hours of work spread over 22 months.
The cost of this work, designed by Charles Lavigne, reached 163 million francs.
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