The downstream dam of the Baixo Sabor Hydroelectric Development has flooded the EN102 / EM325 roads near the Sabor River, including the existing Portela Bridge. This required the redesign of 3.6km of these roads and a new link between the two banks of the Sabor River.
The superstructure, 268m long between abutment bearings, consists of a single-cell box with a variable depth cross-section with two top flange cantilevers. It has a main span of 120m and two side spans of 74m. Both piers, the highest one reaching about 40m, are of a similar configuration with box shaped lower shafts each one headed by upper twin prestressed rectangular shafts fixed in the deck cross-section.
The foundations are direct in schistic formations.
The water level of the new Sabor Dam will attain the piers’ upper shafts thus resulting in an elegant and unusual landscape integration of the bridge.
The tasks carried out encompassed the EN102 and EM325 road studies and the preliminary and detailed design of the new road and Bridge, including all the disciplines, such as drainage, paving, fencing, affected services, lighting, traffic signing, security and landscape integration.
