naiz: iritzia | Opinion – The Bilbao Abra
Today, September 7, 120 years have passed since the completion of the Santurtzi breakwater, so it seems appropriate to commemorate one of the greatest feats of engineering and public works in the Basque Country.
The lbaizabal river that receives, in Urbi (two waters) Basauri, the flow from the Nerbioi forms a sinuous channel that merges and faces its waters, around the old and disappeared island of San Cristóbal, with the origins of the sea through its estuary. According to history, taking advantage of a fordable place next to the Camino de Castilla, “the bridge” of San Antón was built, attached to a leftover rock on which a fortress was built, later the church of San Antón, where there was a natural anchorage for boats. . There the nucleus of Bilbao will be constituted, to which in 1300 its Puebla Charter will be granted, which will transfer it as a Villa. The Bridge, the estuary and the church will form the emblem of the town. The navigable nature of its 13.7-kilometre channel due exclusively to the influence of the tides, despite the fact that four more rivers will converge downstream, the Kadagua and Galindo, on the left, and the Asua and Udondo-Gobela on the right. right, being an access to the sea with the necessities of supply and exit of goods from the town will condition and facilitate its function as a river port. These commercial activities will mark the character of the place and its people, accentuating their mentality and commercial practice.
The use of the Ría as an export port for iron ore and the gigantic industrialization, especially in the iron and steel, metallurgical and naval sectors, demanded the need to build a large outer port, or outer port, downstream on the coastline, which, in addition to sheltering from the mouth of the estuary, it constitutes a safe anchorage where the largest ships of the time could dock. The project, by the great engineer of roads, canals and ports of Evaristo de Churruca analyzed all the previous ones that since 1847 tried to solve the problems of navigability, with in-depth studies of waves, tides, reflections and the experiences of other ports. Carried out between 1886-1887 as a result of his intelligence and tenacity, it was approved by Royal Order on June 29, 1888. The works consisted of a main breakwater on the western side, in Santurtzi, which begins 1,600 meters from the end of the Iron dock , 1,450 meters long, with two alignments of 950 and 500 meters, directly exposed to the prevailing winds and tides from the northwest.
Outer Port. The works awarded in public auction on October 25 of the same year, were granted to the company “Coi-seau, Couvreux fils and Félix Allard” who in turn designed the Titan cranes, electric for the first time, which were used for the placement of concrete blocks, with a capacity of 60 tons. The one located on the Arriluze wharf, for the subsequent construction of the Algorta (Getxo) breakwater, a characteristic industrial landscape landmark, was incomprehensibly demolished in April 1972 with such brutality towards heritage as it is today. The first stone of the breakwater, a cube of 30 centimeters and weighing 68 kilograms, was thrown into the water on September 21, 1888 in the midst of great celebrations presided over by numerous authorities. So that in such a wide space, the layout of the dike and counter-dike were indicated by placing 30 boats on one side and 20 on the other, every 50 meters and placing two barges at the ends, positioning the planned entrance mouth.
Its construction, in addition to being colossal due to its characteristics, was a heroic work. They worked from April 20 to September 30 of each year due to the difficulties and dangers created by storms and waves. The works suffered great damage in 1893 and 1894, twice, coming to tear up the last 12 meters of the work in one piece, moving a mass of 800 cubic meters of about 1,700 tons 32 meters from its position. Consequently, the project was changed, approved by RO on June 15, 1895, using the already consolidated plinth as outer defense breakwater, constituting a new one further removed, and modifying the superstructure. On the afternoon of Sunday, September 7, 1902, in the midst of great celebrations, the last block was placed with the inscription: “SM Don Alfonso XIII laid this stone on September VII of MDCCCCII.” Administratively, the works were delivered on August 16, 1905. The works of the Algorta breakwater of 1072 meters in a rectilinear layout to counteract the swells, approved on August 14, 1893, were awarded to the same contractors being simultaneous with those of the breakwater although without so many difficulties. They were completed in the 1901 campaign and were definitively received on October 22, 1903.
Open outside. Modernly, the Abra and its two breaking arms have already been overcome by the port and industrial needs that began with the implementation of the nearby Petronor refinery in Muskiz with the consequent demand for adequate facilities to be able to receive large oil tankers and unload crude oil, later also of gas carriers creating a new port area: the outer Abra. On the one hand, it was closed between 1969 and 1975 with the gigantic west dam at Punta Lucero. Likewise, a lifting breakwater was planned in Punta Galea, from Getxo, which began in 1978 but two years later it did not continue to be a submerged breakwater. Its planned end, where there is another beacon, together with the end of the Santurtzi breakwater, make up the new mouth of the Port of Bilbao, 480 meters wide. Both were projected by the engineer Suárez Bares.
The direction of the Santurtzi breakwater was disfigured as it was altered by adding earth fills to it, initially from the inside, to build docks and later, once completed, at 5,500 meters the end of the Punta Lucero breakwater in 1985, the one located furthest west, also on the outside, limiting it to the Santurtzi breakwater and creating Pier No. 1. In its time it was prolonged and the primitive traditional green beacon was eliminated, having been modified again in 1995 when the Maritime Control Center was built at its end. On the right bank, the Arriluze contrapier maintains its initial character, even with the red marker, at its end as a linear promenade, despite having attached a camouflaged commercial area and misnamed a marina. More recently, in 2017, a beautiful passenger terminal for cruise ships that dock in the port was built in its interior, a project by the architect Pablo Estefanía and his team.
Ingenuity and beauty. When the two wharves were completed, closing the Abra with an entrance mouth of 640 meters, a cove of 287 hectares and a depth between 12 and 15 was configured, which had to be very beautiful both for the natural environment that framed it, as well as for the arch, not because of its shape, or the triumphal gate that constituted the Vizcaya Ferry Bridge (this is how it appears in the UNESCO registry as a World Heritage Site since 2006), a colossal landmark on the horizon inaugurated in 1893, the work of the Basque architect Alberto de Palacio and the French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin. Currently very degraded because of its dealer who has turned it, with impunity, into a bazaar and a bar. Also, along the 800-meter river path that accompanied the passage of boats, the Iron Dock completed in 1887 on the left bank, Portugalete and the Areeta breakwater, known as the mojijonera, on the right. Place where the monument of homage to Evaristo de Churruca is located, inaugurated in 1939, made up of a lighthouse tower and a set of bronze sculptures made up of his seated figure and a group of allegorical figures: «Bilbao’s effort to conquer the sea ». If his genius still floats in the Abra, his remains rest in a beautiful pantheon in Mutriku next to the same sea that he knew as a child and that he knew how to dominate with his talent, creating in the port of Bilbao some of the most important public works in history from the Basque Country.