Viaduct
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A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early viaducts comprised a series of arches of roughly equal length. Viaducts may span land or water or both.

The longest viaduct in antiquity may have been the Pont Serme which crossed wide marshes in southern France. Viaducts are commonly used in many cities which are railroad centers, such as Chicago (Illinois), Atlanta (Georgia), Birmingham (Alabama)and Manchester, England. These viaducts cross the large railroad yards that are needed for freight trains there, and also cross the multi-track railroad lines that are needed for heavy railroad traffic. These viaducts keep highway and city street traffic from having to be continually interrupted by the train traffic. Likewise, some viaducts carry railroads over large valleys, or they carry railroads over cities with lots of cross-streets and avenues. The example of Viaduct on Expressways are Alabang Viaduct in South Luzon Expressway in Muntinlupa City, Philippines that crosses Alabang-Zapote Road in Barangay Alabang the viaduct reaches until Filinvest Interchange. In the north the Pulilan-Apalit Viaduct known as Candaba viaduct in North Luzon Expressway in Philippines is raised over the Candaba swamp from Pulilan, Bulacan until it reaches Apalit, Pampanga. This keeps the highway open to traffic, even when the swamp gets flooded during the rainy season. It has a view of Mt. Arayat, which is the lone mountain in Central Plain of Luzon.

Many viaducts over land connect points of similar height in a landscape, usually by bridging a river valley or other eroded opening in an otherwise flat area. Often such valleys had roads descending either side (with a small bridge over the river, where necessary) that become inadequate for the traffic load, necessitating a viaduct for "through" traffic. Such bridges also lend themselves for use by rail traffic, which requires straighter and flatter routes. Some viaducts have more than one deck, such that one deck has vehicular traffic and another deck having rail traffic. One example of this is the Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto, Canada, that carries motor traffic on the top deck as Bloor Street, and metro as the Bloor-Danforth subway line on the lower deck, over the steep Don River valley.

Viaducts over water are often combined with other types of bridges or tunnels to cross navigable waters. The viaduct sections, while less expensive to design and build than tunnels or bridges with larger spans, typically lack sufficient horizontal and vertical clearance for large ships. See the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by the French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, in collaboration with architect Norman Robert Foster, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one pier's summit at 343 metres (1,125 ft)-slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m (125 ft) shorter than the Empire State Building. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic two days later.

In Romance languages, the word viaduct refers to a bridge which spans only land. A bridge spanning water is called ponte.

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Minor settlement of Seattle viaduct column - Seattle Times Tweet this news
Seattle Times--The state Transportation Department says a weekend inspection of Seattle's Alaskan Way -viaduct- found that a column had settled by a half-inch since July. ... - Date : Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:49:01 GMT+00:00
Trains cancelled due to man on top of Redruth viaduct - This Is The Westcountry Tweet this news
This Is The Westcountry--The 36-year-old Camborne man was sitting on the -viaduct- that crosses the road at around 5.30pm. It caused the main rail line out of the county to close for ... - Date : Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:38:30 GMT+00:00
2 bids for $2 billion Seattle tunnel project - BusinessWeek Tweet this news
BusinessWeek--Chris Gregoire says the state Transportation Department has received two bids at or under the limit for the project to replace the Alaskan Way -Viaduct- in ... - Date : Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:31:56 GMT+00:00



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