Vysočina Bridge, Steel highway bridge in Velké Meziříčí, Czech Republic
The Vysočina Bridge carries the D1 motorway across the Oslava valley at Velké Meziříčí as two parallel steel bridges, one for each direction. Each deck is 426 m long and lies 77.5 m above the valley floor, supported by three intermediate concrete piers. The steel box girders measure 6.0 × 4.1 m and the deck runs in a horizontal curve.
Construction began in 1972 and the bridge opened in 1978, making it a key project during the motorway expansion era. The completion marked an important achievement in Eastern European infrastructure building at that time.
Engineers and architects regularly study the bridge design as an example of 1970s infrastructure development in Eastern European transportation networks.
The bridge carries the D1 motorway at its 144th kilometre, where about 40,000 vehicles crossed daily in 2016. The deck sits 77.5 m above the Oslava valley, so the structure is best seen from below rather than from the carriageway itself.
The deck weighs 6,200 tonnes and rests on three intermediate concrete piers, with spans of 80, 110, 134 and 100 metres. During the 2020 rebuild, hydraulic jacks lifted it 4 centimetres to replace 1,100 kg bearings on every pier. A model of the bridge is kept in the road and motorway museum in Velké Meziříčí.
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