An American engineering firm is helping “unstick” a Chilean bridge of national significance that many thought was beyond repair. The 363-meter-long, 14-m-wide moveable bascule bridge’s two lifting sections—each 45 m long and weighing 720 tonnes—had been kept frozen in place at 35° since 2015.
“The bridge is the first of its kind in Chile,” says Alberto Abalo, a civil engineering consultant to the Director General of Public Works for the Chilean government. “The city of Valdivia is surrounded by rivers. There is a need for bridges to connect the region.”