Atlantic Bridge, Panama

The Atlantic Bridge is a road bridge in Colón, Panama spanning the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. Completed in 2019, it is the third bridge over the canal after the Bridge of the Americas and the Centennial Bridge, both on the Pacific side of the canal.

The bridge is a double-pylon, double-plane, concrete girder, cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 530 m and two side spans of 230 m. The east and west approaches are 1074 m and 756 m long, respectively. The bridge was designed by the China Communication Construction Company and built by Vinci Construction.

Route
The bridge is part of a local connection road (as yet unnamed) between Bolivar Highway in the east and the undeveloped western area. It will replace the nearby Panama Canal Ferry. It is the only bridge north of the Culebra Cut (Puente Centenario).

Construction
Three consortiums were approved to bid for the bridge construction: Acciona Infraestructuras -Tradeco (Spain and Mexico), Odebrecht–Hyundai Joint Venture (Brazil and Korea), and Vinci Construction Grands Projets (France). Tenders were received in August 2012.

In October 2012, the Panama Canal Authority awarded a contract to the French company Vinci Construction to build a third (permanent) bridge, near the Atlantic side, for an offer price of US$366 million. At that time the bridge had no name, but Third bridge and Atlantic side bridge were used, as well as Atlantic Bridge.

Construction of the bridge and access viaducts, which commenced in January 2013, was planned to take three and a half years and was expected to be completed in 2016. The main span of the bridge was keyed (joined into a single span) on 6 September 2018. The bridge was unveiled by Panama President Laurentino Cortizo and Panama Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano on Friday 2 August 2019.