‘A Line Over the Miño,’ a project carried out by Burgos & Garrido in collaboration with Bernabeu Ingenieros, turned out the winner in the proceedings negotiated to select from the best three entries to the ideas competution for a pedestrian and cycling bridge connecting Goián-Castelinho, in the Spanish province of Pontevedra, to Cerveira, in the Portuguese district of Viana do Castelo. The other two designs that made it to the finals were by Álvaro Siza and Jorge Amorín Nunes on the one hand, and Francisco Javier Zubia and Paula Teles on the other.

Never sloping more than 5%, the bridge curves on plan to adapt to the river’s two banks, respecting the 6.44-meter gauge on the banks and reaching a maximum of 13 in the course of a 300-meter length. In this way, most of the sailboats coming from the nautical clubs of Tuy and A Guarda are able to pass under it.

The type of structure selected makes a very slender deck possible: only 30 centimeters thick at the ends, 60 at the center. The deck hangs from the main cable – composed of two elements 200 mm in diameter – with two strings 30 mm in diameter every 12 meters. Implanted off the river course, the two piers are 39 meters tall and are hidden behind preexisting large trees on both banks. The stirrups of reinforced concrete and granite cobbles are set more than 10 meters away from the shore, and the towers more than 30.

Construction will be done in phases within 12 months maximum, in accordance with various factors: the absence of piers on the river course (hard to execute in this case because of the riverbed’s depth); the terrain’s good geotechnical characteristics (both banks have a substratum of granitic rock and can support plenty of weight); the deck’s lightness; the plan of executing simultaneous cantilevers from the two banks, this being a dry construction job (with the exception of the foundations and stirrups).