The last section of road surface to complete the Rio-Antirrio bridge span was slotted into place on Monday, linking western Greece with the Peloponnese and bringing to a close the largest and most ambitious public works project ever to be carried out in the country.

With a total span of 2,252 meters, the Rio-Antirrio bridge is the longest cable-stayed suspension bridge in the world. It straddles the entrance of the Corinthian Gulf to connect the city of Patras, Greece's third-largest sea port, with Aetoloakarnania and northwestern Greece.

It will allow vehicles to traverse the distance from Rio to Antirrio in about four minutes, greatly reducing the time currently needed for crossings by car ferry and also eliminating problems caused by bad weather. It is estimated that average vehicle traffic across the Straits will increase from 8,500 cars per day at present to 10,000 cars per day once the bridge is opened, rising to 25,000 cars per day at peak periods.

The official inauguration ceremony will take place on Saturday evening at 18:00 when the mayors of Rio and Antirrio and their municipal councils will walk across the bridge to meet in the middle of the straits.
A grand ceremony to mark the opening of the bridge will take place on August 7, the day before the Olympic Torch relay is scheduled to pass over it on its way to Athens and the start of the Olympic Games.

An announcement by the two municipalities said that the completion of the bridge finally realizes a dream first envisioned in the late 19th century, when it was first presented as an idea in Parliament by the Greek politician Harilaos Trikoupis in 1889.

The project finally got underway in 1991, when a tender was proclaimed, and the first offers were submitted in December 1993. A contract between the Greek state and the construction company Gefyra SA was signed at the start of 1996 and work officially began in 1997.

Source: Athens News Agency

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