Europe’s first stainless steel bridge build for road traffic opened on June 10 on Menorca Island in Spain. The bridge is build entirely of Outokumpu’s stainless and it is situated in one of the most emblematic tourist points of the Menorca's biosphere-reserved island called Cala Galdana.
The new duplex stainless steel bridge replaces the old concrete bridge, which was seriously damaged due to corrosion problems caused by Menorca’s marine environment. As a material stainless steel has higher construction costs than conventional materials, but it is recyclable, resists corrosion, has excellent mechanical properties and needs very little maintenance work thus enlarging the bridge’s life. This means the total lifecycle costs of the bridge are similar than even smaller compared to concrete or carbon steel bridges. This makes stainless an ideal choice for bridges and buildings. Menorca Insular Counsel wanted to invest in this project since it offers significant environmental improvements to the old river scenery of Torrent dAlgendar. The new bridge combines beautifully efficiency, economy, and easy maintenance.
The new bridge is 55 meters long and 13 meters width consisting two arches that separate walkers and road traffic. Metallic structure is made entirely of stainless steel plates with an approximate weight of 160 tonnes. The Menorca Bridge is built by Ferrovial-Agroman. The stainless steel came from Outokumpu’s Degerfors mill, in Sweden. Pedelta, a Barcelona based engineering company specialized in bridge designing, was responsible of the design work with technical expertise provided by Outokumpu. The bridge’s constructor, Ascamon was very satisfied with Outokumpu’s Hot Rolled Plate package. Outokumpu delivered about 1000 stainless tailor made plate sections in Duplex grade 2205 in accurate sizes ready for welding. This resulted in efficient and easy fabrication work.