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The Rio-Antirio bridge (Greek: Γέφυρα Ρίου-Αντίρριου), officially called "Charilaos Trikoupis" bridge after the statesman who first envisioned it, is a cable-stayed bridge crossing the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese to Antirio on mainland Greece.
Improved transportationThe 2,880 meters (9,449 ft) long bridge dramatically improves access to and from the Peloponnese, which could previously be reached only by ferry or via the isthmus of Corinth at its extreme east end. Its width is 28 m — it has two vehicle lanes per direction, an emergency lane and a pedestrian walkway. Its five-span four-pylon cable-stayed portion of length 2,252 meters (7,388 ft) is the world's second longest cable-stayed deck; only the deck of the Millau Viaduct is longer at 2,460 meters (8,071 ft). However, as the latter is also supported by bearings at the pylons apart from cable stays, the Rio-Antirio bridge deck might be considered the longest cable-stayed "suspended" 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. Its official name is the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge. Charilaos Trikoupis was a 19th century Greek prime minister, and suggested the idea of building a bridge between Rio and Antirio; however, the endeavour was too expensive at the time, when Greece was trying to get a late foot into the Industrial Revolution
HistoryThe bridge was planned in the mid-1990s. Site preparation and dredging began in July 1998, and construction of the massive supporting pylons in 2000. With these complete in 2003, work began on the traffic decks and supporting cables. On May 21, 2004, the main construction was completed; only equipment (sidewalks, railings, etc.) and waterproofing remained to be installed. The bridge was finally inaugurated on August 7, 2004, a week before the opening of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens -- and the Olympic torchbearers were the first to officially cross its length. One of them was Otto Rehhagel, the German football coach who won the Euro 2004 Championships for Greece. Another one was Costas Laliotis, the former Minister of Public Works during whose term the project had begun.
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