Malleco Viaduct

- 37.963395 - 72.438578Koordinaten: 37 ° 57 ' 48.2 "S, 72 ° 26' 18.9 " W

F1

Railway Santiago - Puerto Montt

Río Malleco

The Malleco Viaduct is a railway bridge in the Región de la Araucanía in Chile, near the town of Collipulli the valley of Malleco crossed a tributary of the Río Bío Bío. It is the highest still operating railway bridge in Chile and is on the list of potential UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Description

The Malleco Viaduct is going on on the route from Santiago to Puerto Montt the Empresa de Ferrocarriles del Estado in the section between Angol and Traiquén. It crosses the Malleco at an altitude of 102 m, making it Chile's second highest bridge, only the Conchi Viaduct on the former route from Antofagasta to Bolivia is higher by one meter.

The one-lane bridge between the abutments total of 347.5 m long and 4 m wide. It is divided into 5 fields each with a span of 69.5 m. The track is on the trusses that are supported by four half-timbered pillars. The first and the fourth pillar is in each 43.7 m high, 67.7 m, the second and the third 75.7 m. The diagonal bracing between the piers and the superstructure as well as the schmälernen pillar at the beginning and at the end of the bridge were later added to adjust the bridge to the increased weight of the locomotives.

History

The measures pushed by the state expansion of the railway network, the Chilean engineer Aurelio Victorino Aubrey planned the route section of Angol after Traiguén with the Malleco Viaduct. The 1885 prompted by the government in France, proposals for the work gained Schneider et Cie in Le Creusot before Gustave Eiffel and the Anciens Établissements Cail. The steel beams of the bridge were made ​​in France and shipped to the site by ship and the now -built railroad. The sinking of a ship and the required supply of new parts introduced at producing large delays. Aubrey died in the mid 1888, Eduardo Vigneaux took over the monitoring of the further work. The bridge was officially opened by President José Manuel Balmaceda on October 26, 1890.

On November 25, 1990, the Malleco Viaduct was declared a monument. In 1994 it was taken by the American Society of Civil Engineers in the List of International Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks. It is also in the Tentative List of UNESCO included as a condition for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Chilean Post has a double stamps issued with the bridge in the original shape on one side and the reinforced molding on the other brand.

About a hundred meters from the Malleco Viaduct is a modern highway bridge the Panamericana.