Île de Ré bridge, Toll bridge in La Pallice, France.
The Île de Ré bridge is a 2,926.5-metre concrete viaduct that curves from La Repentie, near the port of La Pallice northwest of La Rochelle, to the tip of Sablanceaux at Rivedoux-Plage on the Île de Ré. Its deck, carried on 28 reinforced-concrete piers, rises to 42 metres above the sea and is made of six viaducts with prestressed single-box beams over 29 spans, 23 of them 110 metres long.
The crossing opened in May 1988, replacing a ferry service that had carried vehicles and passengers to the island before. Construction took several years and brought a permanent road link that fundamentally changed access to the island.
The bridge is named after the Île de Ré, which it reaches at the Pointe de Sablanceaux in Rivedoux-Plage; the mainland end lies at La Repentie, near the port of La Pallice. Its opening in 1988 replaced ferries that had run between La Pallice and Sablanceaux, and islanders who work or send children to school in La Rochelle now cross by road.
The bridge carries the D735 departmental road from La Repentie, near the port of La Pallice, to the tip of Sablanceaux at Rivedoux-Plage. It is a free crossing, with no toll. Traffic was estimated at 10,000 vehicles per day in low season and 25,000 in summer; by 2007 it exceeded three million vehicles a year.
Beyond carrying traffic, the structure also holds utility lines that bring drinking water and electricity to the island. The design accounts for wind load and potential seismic movement that can occur along this coast.
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