Tampico Bridge

Tampico Bridge
Bridge at it appeared 11 November 2007
Coordinates	22°13′42″N 97°50′13″W / 22.22833°N 97.83694°WCoordinates: 22°13′42″N 97°50′13″W / 22.22833°N 97.83694°W
Crosses	Pánuco River
Locale	Tampico, Tamaulipas / Pueblo Viejo, Veracruz, Mexico
Official name	Puente Tampico
Characteristics
Design	Cable-stayed bridge
Total length	1,543 m (5062 ft)
Width	18 m (59 ft)
Height	55 m (180 ft)
Longest span	360 m (1181 ft)
History
Opened	1988

The Tampico Bridge (Spanish: Puente Tampico) is a vehicular cable-stayed bridge in Mexico, located on the Pánuco River in the city of Tampico, Tamaulipas, near to the Gulf of Mexico. The bridge has been in service since 1988 and was designed by Professor Modesto Armijo from COMEC, a Mexican engineering company. It was designed to withstand the severe hurricanes of the Gulf of Mexico. It connects the states of Tamaulipas and Veracruz.

The bridge uses an orthotropic steel deck girder for a central section of the 360 m long main span, while the rest of the main span and the short lateral spans are a prestressed concrete girder. Both steel and concrete deck girders have the same external shape. This original principle was later used at the French Normandy cable-stayed bridge (756 m main span).

The dynamic analysis of the bridge under turbulent cyclonic winds, as well as the revision of the structural project, and the geometry plus stress control of the bridge during erection, were achieved by Alain Chauvin from Sogelerg, using the French "Scanner" computer program.