Pont de Normandie

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**Pont de Normandie**
Image:Pont normandie depuis aire repos nord.jpg Pont de Normandie
Carries	A29 autoroute
Crosses	Seine
Locale	Le Havre–Honfleur, France
Maintained by	Société des Autoroutes de Paris Normandie
Design	Cable-stayed bridge M. Virlogeux, F. Doyelle, C. Lavigne
Longest span	856 m
Total length	2143.21 m
Width	23.60 m
Height	214.77 m
Opening date	1995
Coordinates	49°26′09″N, 0°16′28″E

The Pont de Normandie (or Bridge of Normandy) is a cable-stayed road bridge that spans the river Seine linking Le Havre to Honfleur in Normandy, northern France. Its total length is 2143.21 m (856 m between the 2 piers).

The bridge allows the Autoroute A29 to cross the Seine river.

The website of the company operating the bridge is http://www.sapn.fr/

[edit] Construction

The bridge was designed by Michel Virlogeux. The architects were François Doyelle and Charles Lavigne.<ref>Nicolas Janberg, 'Normandy Bridge', Structurae [en]. Retrieved 30 September 2006.</ref> Construction began in 1988 and lasted 7 years. The bridge opened on January 20 1995.

At that time the bridge was both the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and had the record for the longest distance between piers for any cable-stayed bridge. It was more than 250 m longer between piers than the previous record. This record was lost in 1999 to the Tatara Bridge in Japan. Its record for length for a cable-stayed bridge was lost in 2004 to the 2883 meters of the Rio-Antirio. At the end of construction, the bridge had cost $465 million.

The cable-stayed design was chosen because it was both cheaper and more resistant to high winds than a suspension bridge.

[edit] Structure

The span, 23.60 m wide, is divided into 4 lanes for traffic and 2 lanes for pedestrians. The pylons, made of concrete, are shaped as upside-down Y's. They weigh more than 20,000 tons and are 214.77 m tall. More than 19,000 tons of steel were used and 184 cables were used.