How Seville freed its river: The Cachorro Bridge

The Cristo de la Expiración Bridge, also known as the Cachorro Bridge, is an urban viaduct located in Seville’s historic district. It replaced a land mass that was blocking the river to prevent flooding of the Guadalquivir River in Seville.

The construction of this new defense allowed for the removal of the blockage and its replacement with a bridge. As part of the 1992 Exposition of Seville, the city utilized a hydraulic scheme to defend itself from flooding and redeveloped the dock with new bridges, including the Cachorro Bridge. The bridge is named after the Cachorro Christ, whose procession takes place during Holy Week from the local Patrocinio chapel.

A competition was held by the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation to demolish the Chapina blockage. Ayesa emerged as the winner by presenting their proposed design for the new bridge. The bridge has a steel structure with two lowered arches spanning 130 meters each, without underwater supports. The pedestrian crossings on the bridge are covered with white canvas, resembling sail masts, which provides shade from the heat for those walking.

The bridge was finished in 1991 and has boxes to house the water supply pipes, telecommunications, and energy supply for the city. The arches rest on cut enclosures of 600 square meters and 22 meters deep built on the blue marshes of the Guadalquivir River. The deck, located outside the arch, is supported by reinforced concrete and is used as a control and service registration area for the bridge.

José Luis Manzanares Japón, the founder of Ayesa, drew inspiration from the Alexandre III Bridge in Paris to design a deck-arch bridge that accommodates both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

The bridge designed by José Luis Manzanares Japón for Ayesa set a world record for the slenderness of its arches, which was a remarkable feat at a time when metal structures of this type were being questioned due to the breaking of several similar structures. For Manzanares Japón, the project held emotional value as he had witnessed the river being closed off with an earth dike during his childhood and had always dreamed of changing it someday.