page_title: Neuquén-Cipolletti bridges
section_title: Old road bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Neuquén-Cipolletti bridges / Old road bridge
caption_attribution_description: English: A ferry on the Neuquén river. The ferries were commonly used to move vehicles and pedestrians between Neuquen and Cipolletti before the construction of the highway bridge. On the right is visible the recent constructed railway bridge.
context_page_description: The Neuquén-Cipolletti bridges are a series of four bridges that connect the cities of Neuquén and Cipolletti by spanning the Neuquén River, in Argentina. Three parallel ones, two road bridges and a railway bridge, were built on a former herd wrangling path. The fourth one was built upstream.
  By 1899 the expansion of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway reached the station that later would become Cipolletti. To continue to the Neuquén Territory, a steel railway bridge was constructed in 1899–1902 to cross the Neuquén River. After the railroad connected Neuquén Station on the Confluencia settlement, the capital of the Territory was moved to the area, and the city of Neuquén founded in 1904.
  Vehicular and pedestrian crossings of the river were made using boats and canoes at that time. By the 1930s, the service was overwhelmed by the growing population. The construction of a road bridge started in 1935, and the bridge opened in 1937. A second road bridge opened in 1997 to alleviate traffic congestion, while the third one is scheduled to open in 2015.
context_section_description: Following the opening of the railway bridge, pedestrian cross was facilitated by the new structure, while boats and canoes still constituted the main crossing for pedestrian and vehicle transportation. As the population grew, by the 1930s the boat services became insufficient. After several complaints and stories published in the local press, Governor Carlos H. Rodríguez requested of the National Directorate of Roadways (Spanish: Dirección Nacional de Vialidad) the construction of a road bridge. The structure was to be built next to the railway bridge, in the cross of the former herd wrangling path. The construction was assigned to the German-owned company GEOPÉ. The cornerstone was laid on May 26, 1935, by the new governor, Enrique Raimundo Pilotto. The construction deadline was set for April 15, 1937.
  The structure was formed by nine spans of 51.6 metres (169 ft), united with 6 metres (20 ft)-wide concrete tied arches. Two 1 metre (3.3 ft) sidewalks were built on each side with 1 metre (3.3 ft) guard rails. The abutment was built over four-armed concrete cylinders that reached a depth of 12 metres (39 ft) under the soil of the river. Each of the eight columns of the bridge were founded over two-armed concrete cylinders, with the depth of 12 metres (39 ft). The road was 6 metres (20 ft) wide, while the bridge had a height of 15 metres (49 ft). On Neuquén's side, 55 cubic metres (1,900 cu ft) of land were removed to create a ten-metre wide roadway. The total cost of the works, and compensations for expropriations amounted to ARS$920,700.
  By February 1937, the works initially directed by engineer Poenitz, and later continued by Lettner were finished two months ahead of schedule. Businessman Otto Max Neumann organized the opening ceremony. On February 20, 1937, the bridge was inaugurated by Governor of Neuquén Enrique Raimundo Pilotto and Cipolletti citizen Augusto Mengelle, who represented the absent Governor of Rio Negro. Two thousand citizens attended the opening, while a caravan of 300 cars crossed the bridge, following the car of Neuquén's Governor.
caption: Ferry crossing the river in 1910
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