Portuguese infrastructure operator Infraestruturas de Portugal has awarded Somague a €12.6 million maintenance and refurbishment contract for work on the bridge Ponte 25 de Abril.
Somague is heading up a consortium that includes Sociedade de Montagens Metalomecânicas and Reparação, Consolidação e Modificação de Estruturas.
The 25 de Abril, a 2.3km suspension bridge for vehicles and trains over the Tagus River, connects Portugal’s capital city Lisbon to the municipality of Almada. It was built by the American Bridge Company which constructed the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in the US state of California. It opened in 1966 as a vehicle-only structure but a train platform was added in 1999.
The bridge has ae upper deck that carries six vehicle lanes, while the lower deck carries a double-track railway electrified at 25 kV AC.
Until 1974, the structure was named Salazar Bridge after António de Oliveira Salazar, the Portuguese dictator at the time. It was renamed the Ponte 25 de Abril in 1974 to commemorates the Carnation Revolution of that year which tumbled Salazar from power.
Somague – part of the Spanish Sacyr Group – was involved in the consortium that led the design and construction of one of Europe’s longest bridges ¬- the 17km Vasco da Gama Bridge in Lisbon. The six-lane cable-stayed structure over the Tagus opened in 1998.
