Bridges

Two days, two towns. But what caught my attention was three bridges.

Somehow this post seemed to have got lost in the mix. Sorry about that.

Cadiz is a small city, jutting out  into the Atlantic. A spit of land that really constrains the growth of the town.

And the city is getting a new bridge.

A splendid one at that. They are in the final months of completing the structure.

The last pieces are being put in place. I love suspension bridges because you can really get to see how they work from an engineering point of view, the roadway literally hanging from the two towers.

And before it is finished, it is really impressive to see the delicate balancing act performed both by the engineers and the contractors who are building the bridge.

It is equally impressive to see how they are casting all this concrete, in situ, gently moving the formwork closer together, until the two sides will eventually meet.

So soon Cadiz will get a new bridge, which I am sure will be really beneficial, but this we will discuss later.

It took us quite a while to find somewhere to park Dora. We went into the city and drove all around the outside, but this is such a small space and there is limited parking. We headed back towards the old bridge, to find a suburb where she could sit while we went around the city. A bus took us to the centre where we found the tourist information.

The city has set up a series of walks;

We were recommended the purple and the yellow. It meant following a line painted on the pavement.

Here is a photo of the line!

Cadiz is quite cute, with lots of narrow tall streets that immediately make you forget that you are so close to the sea and surrounded by water.

We did like the use of bright colours though.

There was also the usual abundance of old towers.

churches,

the obligatory cathedral, which as usual we refused to pay to witness its bleak and gaudy interior.

the town hall bathed in winter sunlight.

Some of the larger squares, with impressive palms, where you do start to notice the surrounding water.

And another had some trees that looked like they were from mangrove swamps, with the most amazing buttressed roots

That cafe culture always looks so great with that blue, blue sky, even in winter.

We had a deadline, so no coffee for us!

We had a purple line to follow.

And buildings to appreciate.

As we left the city we were reminded by the municipality of all the benefits the bridge would bring; apparently a quarter of a million extra visitors would flood the place, not to mention all the extra investment. But this begs the question, where will they all park. This is, after all, a road bridge, and will bring with  those 250,000 people, probably over 100,000 cars.

Now the city is already congested, but you can see that it would be an easy win with its residents, it just all sounds so good.

But is it really the best thing for the city and those that live there.

Maybe a rapid light rail system from the mainland, where tourists could easily park might have kept the city streets clear of traffic and more pleasant to be in, but maybe that would have been a harder sell!

We left, heading towards Sevilla.

 

Now it is twenty years since I have been in Sevilla, some architectural field trip during my degree, and I must say there was very little that I remembered.

 

What I did remember however were the bridges, which were built as part of the Expo, the reason why we had visited the city. The bridges are by Santiago Calatrava.

I have never liked these bridges.

I have never trusted them.

I think they are disingenuous.

I do not think they are honest.

I do not think they work like they look like they work.

But I may be wrong!

I think that big dramatic arch, with those rods which appear to hang the road off of, is in fact pure decoration.

I think it is unnecessary, architectural, engineering bling.

The next bridge down the river is pure and simple. No arch, no dramatics. It is not necessary. It is a small river to span.

So it begs the question, is Calatrava’s bridge so beautiful that warrants all that extra stuff, that extra steel, extra resource, dug and smelted from the ground?

I think not. I think it is a waste of good metal, and I think it is dishonest.

Maybe an engineer can tell me if the bridge is working the way it looks to work.

And here is the next bridge further up the river.

This is also by Calatrava.

This one I am also distrustful of.

All that weight pulling off that one leaning tower, and no restraint pulling the other way.

I do not think this is engineering.

I think this is sculpture, and bad sculpture at that. Sculpture pretending to be engineering

I later did a bit of research. While in Valencia, the home of Calatrava, we visited ‘Calatrava city’, and there was ‘Calatrava museum’, containing the ‘Calatrava bookshop’. The first bridge was not mentioned in the anthology of Calatrava, the second one was though.

To enable that bridge to lean and to take the weight of the bridge, to suspend the deck took mass, a great deal of mass. That leaning column is filled with concrete; tonnes and tonnes of concrete. By filling the mast with concrete the engineer was able to obligate the need for a stay. In Valencia the stay stayed, which saved tonnes of concrete. Is it less beautiful? Is it worth it? Remember, the tax payers of Seville (and probably Europe) paid for it both in Euros and carbon emissions!

And then we have Sevilla;

With  its large cathedral.

Quiet a lot of decoration.

And islamic influence.

It was the small courtyards, reminiscent of those in Morocco, that really caught our attention.

Perfect to keep out the high sun, and a natural chimney taking away the hot air, creating a breeze.

Very beautiful.

Like Cadiz, lots of colour.

And narrow streets.

And a place for the devoted.

What do they get out of lighting that candle?

GDR