Manaus-Iranduba Bridge, Amazon Region

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The Manaus-Iranduba bridge is a 3.6km river crossing over the Rio Negro River. Image courtesy of Dave Lonsdale. Manaus is an industrial city in the Amazon state which is largely secluded by rain forest. Image courtesy of NordNordWest. The bridge connects Manaus and Iranduba cities in Brazil. Image courtesy of Bites. The Manaus-Iranduba bridge, also called Ponte Rio Negro, is a 3.6km river crossing across the Rio Negro in the Amazon region of Brazil. The bridge connects the cities of Manaus and Iranduba. Manaus is an industrial city of the Amazon state that is largely secluded by rain forest and Iranduba is a municipality located south of Manaus. The bridge was opened in October 2011. The Manaus-Iranduba bridge runs from north to south and connects towns such as Iranduba, Manacapuru and Novo Airão. The project was financed by the national development bank of Brazil (BNDES) and Amazonas state government. Prior to the construction of the bridge, ferries used to be a mode of transportation to and from Manaus. It used to take about 40 minutes to cross the river. The bridge has reduced the travel time to five minutes. The bridge will benefit the people living on far bank areas, in their economic development. Construction on the bridge began in 2008 and it was opened in October 2011. The construction cost of the project was about $570m. The project included construction of the 3.6km bridge with 246 total columns, 72 supporting columns and 213 precast beams. About 7km of access routes and installation of maritime traffic signalling and lighting also formed a part of the project. The bridge was installed with a span of 400m cable stay by using 56 cables. The length of the central beam of the bridge is two x 200m, the width is 20.70m and height of the bridge in the middle is 55m. The lateral side walk of the bridge is 22.60m, the trafficable area has a width of 16.50m and height of the main pylon is 103m. The navigation clearance under the deck is 57m from high water level. High water level in the river delayed the construction of the bridge. The concrete blocks were precast on the barges as the water level hampered the construction of the triangular concrete blocks. About 1,600,000 bags of cement, 161,710m3 of structural concrete and 21,500t of steel were used in the construction. Over 5,386 slabs were used in the construction of the bridge. The base plates for pylons have a size of 22x7m and weigh 265t. Six rafts of 1,000t capacity each were used in the construction of the bridge. Two tug boats were used for positioning the raft for the erection of the building structure. About 18,300m² was reserved on the bank of Rio Negro for 99 manufacturing units to produce side beams for bridge construction. The main construction contract was awarded to the Rio Negro Consortium, which is a joint venture of Camargo Correa and Construbase. In November 2009, DLT were awarded a contract to design, supply and operate two deck erection gantries. DLT erected the gantries on the deck in July 2010 and deck erection began in August 2010. TCL Premium Plus was awarded the contract to supply cement for the construction of the bridge. High performance Potain cranes were used for construction of the bridge. The cranes were supplied by Locabens, a company specialised in deploying and operating cranes. Potain MC 235B cranes equipped with a 213ft long jib and a 10t max capacity were used for the project.

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