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TECHNICAL TOURS
Guided tours are being arranged to the venues below during the Symposium. Each tour is designed to take half a day, except all-day Alcántara bridge Tour. All Technical Tours start and finish at the main Symposium venue, except as noted below.
Tour selection must be made in advance on the Symposium web site.
A strict ‘first come first served’ policy will be adopted. A limited number of places may still be available at registration upon arrival in September.
A notebook containing technical description of the main characteristics of the visited structures will be provided to the participants of each tour here.
Please book early as soon as possible.
TT1
Madrid Rio Project
The burying underground of the highway that ran along the edges of the Manzanares River provided the opportunity to open up a new urban territory to the inhabitants of Madrid: the Manzanares Park created by the Madrid Rio Project. This new Park combines both ancient (such as the Segovia Bridge, the Virgen del Puerto Chapel or the Toledo Bridge) and new iconic structures (such as the Arganzuela or the Andorra Footbridges). In this tour, participants will have the opportunity to discover the structures of the Park through a relaxing bike ride guided by the architect Fernando Porras Isla, one of the artifices of the Madrid Rio Project.
Date: Wednesday 3 September Evening
Duration of tour: 3 hours aprox.
Departure and arrival points: It starts at Symposium venue and finishes at the center of Madrid.
Price: 50 €
TT2
Historical Constructions
This tour presents a journey throughout time to discover three of the most important constructions in Madrid by the hand of Leornardo Fernández Troyano and Lucía Fernández, remarkable historians in the field of civil engineering and bridge designers. Firstly, the oldest bridge in use in Madrid dating back to 1584, the Segovia Arch Bridge, will be visited. The second structure to be visited will be the Toledo Arch Bridge built in 1732. The tour will finish in the Zarzuela Hippodrome of Eduardo Torroja, whose grandstands, defined by a series of doubly curved ribless shells with the form of a hyperboloid, represents one of the landmarks in the history of reinforced concrete, and a well-known example of structural art masterpiece.
Date: Wednesday 3 September Evening
Duration of tour: 3 hours aprox.
Departure and arrival points: It starts and finishes at Symposium venue.
Price: 45 €
TT3
Bridges and Footbridges
A number of innovative and attractive bridges and footbridges has been built in the last years in Madrid. In this tour three of the most remarkable of these structures will be visited by the hand of Javier Muñoz and Celso Iglesias, well known bridge designers. Firstly, a structure conceived to minimize its visual impact, Los Franceses Bridge, will be visited. The second selected structure, the Juan Bravo Bridge, corresponded with the first use of weathering steel and high strength white concrete in Spain. Furthermore, this bridge hosts an open-air modern sculpture museum with works of E. Chillida, among others. The tour will finish in La Paloma Footbridge. This structure stands out for its innovative structural system consisting of an open section of “C” shape.
Date: Wednesday 3 September Evening
Duration of tour: 3 hours aprox.
Departure and arrival points: It starts and finishes at Symposium venue.
Price: 45 €
TT4
Tunnels, Subways and Train Stations
This tour presents a journey throughout two masterpieces of the nineteenth-century railway architecture in Madrid and will be guided by Guillermo Ayuso, a well known structural designer. The first of these structures is the Atocha Station built in 1892. In 1992 this Station was expanded and converted into a leisure complex. The ancient steel truss was used to roof a tropical greenhouse and the new railways roof simulates an artificial forest of slender concrete columns designed by the Spanish Architect R. Moneo. The second structure to be visited is the Principe Pio Station. Nowadays, this Station built in 1872, serves as an intermodal station, providing underground, train and bus services.
Date: Thursday 4 September Evening
Duration of tour: 3 hours aprox.
Departure and arrival points: It starts and finishes at Symposium venue.
Price: 45 €
TT5
Skyscrapers and Unique Buildings
A number of skyscrapers has built since the eighties in Madrid as a symbol of the wealth and power of this city. In the last years, a rapid grow of this kind of buildings has occurred in the Cuatro Torres Business Area (CTBA), a business park located in Paseo de la Castellana. This location includes the four highest buildings in Madrid: the Espacio Tower (which shape changes in height to represent a living being), the Cristal Tower (conceived as a sculpture chiseled from a huge glass block), the PwC Tower (with a triangular floor plan with circular sides) and the Caja Madrid Tower. These structures were designed by recognized architects, such as Foster & Partners or Pei Cobb Freed and Reid Fenwick, among others.
In this tour, the four skyscrapers of the CTBA and many singular and interesting buildings such as Bernabeu Stadium and extension, Puerta Europa, AZCA Complex, etc. will be visited under the guidance of Jesús Gómez Hermoso, one of the most important structural engineers of this kind of buildings in Spain, who took part in the project of two of the visited structures.
Date: Thursday 4 September Evening
Duration of tour: 3 hours aprox.
Departure and arrival points: It starts and finishes at Symposium venue.
Price: 45 €
TT6
Bridge History in Spain and traditional meal from Extremadura: Alcántara Bridge, San Benito de Alcántara Monastery and Talavera de la Reina Cable-Stayed Bridge
“Ars ubi materia vincitur ipsa sua” (“The technique where the material is overcome by its own”) This Latin sentence proudly carved in the Alcántara Bridge summarizes the essence of this tour: a journey throughout time to discover the evolution of techniques and materials of the bridge construction in Spain. Firstly, the Alcántara Bridge in Cáceres, will be visited. This arch bridge built in 104-106 A.D. represents one of the better designed and constructed Roman bridges. In fact, many bridge designers worldwide agree that this is one of the best bridges ever built. This bridge visit will be guided by the engineer Leonardo Fernández Troyano. The second bridge to be visited will be the Talavera de la Reina Cable-stayed Bridge, the longest one-pylon cable-stayed bridge with prestressed concrete deck in the world and the highest pylon bridge in Spain. In addition to these structures, the San Benito de Alcántara Monastery will be visited, where plans of some reconstructions of the Alcántara Bridge may be consulted. Furthermore, to introduce the participants in the culture of the area, they will enjoy a traditional meal from Extremadura.
Date: Saturday 6 September
Duration of tour: all day
Departure and arrival points: centre of Madrid
Price: 75€
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