Monday, October 23, 2006 7 years after, record eludes Fernan Bridge By Aledel Gonzalez-Cuizon Sun.Star Staff Reporter
IN 1999, the Marcelo Fernan Bridge was opened to the public, easing traffic to and from Mactan Island to mainland Cebu.
With a center span of 185 meters, it was in the running to be in the record books as the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.
Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano wrote the team behind the Guinness Book of World Records, hoping to have the structure listed.
But seven years after the proposal, Ouano has yet to receive confirmation or any communication regarding the matter.
“Basin nasayop lang ang address (Maybe they used the wrong address),” he said, adding that his letter wasn’t also returned to him. “Nataligam-an lang (This is probably just an oversight).”
In an interview yesterday, Ouano said that had the bridge set a world record, that would have been an added attraction for delegates of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit, who will be using the facility.
Nevertheless, Ouano will write Guinness again and attach all pertinent documents. He might inquire how the Municipality of Carcar made its bid for building the largest shoe in the world; and Cebu City, where the Sugbayanihan, a line of barbecue stalls that stretched 1,300 meters in 2004, was organized.
Construction of the P2.3-billion bridge, the first of its kind in the country, was funded by a loan from the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund.
The bridge is sustained by 80 high-tensile-strength cables, 15 pillars and two towers.
Sun.Star checked guinnessworldrecords.com but it doesn’t have a complete list of records online.
According to Wikipedia.org, Tatara Bridge at Seto Inland Sea in Japan is the cable-stayed bridge with the longest span, measuring about 890 meters.
Like the Fernan Bridge, Tatara Bridge was completed in 1999.
Wikipedia defines a cable-stayed bridge as a bridge that consists of one or more pillars, with cables supporting the roadbed. There are two major classes of cable-stayed bridges, differentiated by how the cables are connected to the pillars.
The extra-dosed bridge is a cable-stayed bridge but with a more substantial box-beam structure that allows the cables to be omitted close to the tower and for the towers to be lower in proportion to the span.
Structurae.de also lists the Marcelo Fernan Bridge in its category for extra-dosed bridges.
