The Rio-Antirrio bridge – in Patras, Greece

The Rio-Antirrio bridge is a State of the Art Bridge in Greece, next to the city of Patras, and is one of the world’s longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges.
It crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese to Antirrio on mainland Greece. 
Whenever you are in that area, do not forget to cross that bridge and enjoy the scenery, or take the little ferry boat, which crosses the same distance, next to the bridge
Both scenarios are worthwhile and very scenic.

The official name of the bridge is the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge. Charilaos Trikoupis was a 19th-century Greek prime minister; he suggested the idea of building a bridge between Rio and Antirrio.
However, nowadays in Greece, most people say  “Rio-Antirro bridge”.

Some bridge facts!

The project was too expensive at the time when Greece was trying to get a late start in the Industrial Revolution.
The bridge was finally inaugurated on August 7, 2004.

The 2,880 m long bridge (approximately 1.8 miles) very much improves access to and from the Peloponnese, which could previously be reached only by ferry.

The bridge has two vehicle lanes per direction, an emergency lane, and a pedestrian walkway. Its five-span four-pylon cabl-stayed portion of length 2,252 m is the world’s second-longest cable-stayed deck.

This bridge is widely considered to be an engineering masterpiece, owing to several solutions applied to span the difficult site.
These difficulties include deep water, insecure materials for foundations, seismic activity, the probability of tsunamis, and the expansion of the Gulf of Corinth due to plate tectonics.

Due to the peculiar conditions of the straits, several unique engineering problems needed to be considered. The water depth reaches 65 m, the seabed is mostly of loose sediment, the seismic activity and possibility of tectonic movement is significant, and the Gulf of Corinth is expanding at a rate of about 30 mm a year. For these reasons, special construction techniques were applied.

The bridge was planned in the mid-1990s. Site preparation and dredging began in July 1998, and the construction of the massive supporting pylons in 2000. With these complete in 2003, work began on the traffic decks and supporting cables.
The bridge was inaugurated on August 7, 2004, a week before the opening of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Olympic torchbearers were the first to officially cross its length.

A video of the bridge

If you do not have the opportunity soon to travel within Greece and cross this beautiful bridge, then take a look at this video, and get the impression you are actually in your car,
driving from Patras to Nafpaktos, and  crossing the bride 🙂
Click here or on the photo below to watch the video.

The ferry boat

If you would like to enjoy the bridge, even more, then you can also take the ferry boat from Rio to Antirrio.
It is a short journey of about 40 minutes, which gives you the opportunity to sail along the bridge, relax, have your coffee and take beautiful pictures!
That is what we usually do ourselves, when not in a hurry! 😎 (see photo)

From the air!

When flying from or to Greece, the plane often passes from this point, and gives you a beautiful view of the bridge. (if you sit at the right window 🙂 )
I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to see it several times. The best photo I could ever make, with my smartphone, is the  you can see here below.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Interested in more modern Greek architecture? then click here and read the article

Architecture in Athens