Progreso's viaduct in Yucatan, Mexico: First durable concrete structure in the world made with stainless steel

In 1935, the Danish company Christiani and Nielsen won the bidding for the design and construction of a viaduct/pier at Port Progreso, Mexico. The design is characterized by the use of stainless steel and massive concrete to the sub and superstructure. The project consisted of a series of arches supported on simple concrete pillars. It consists of three parts: 415 m  access, 1752 m viaduct, and a 50 × 205 m pier. This engineering work is unique in the world for its technological importance by being the first to be designed and built with durability criteria. After being in service for more than 75 years, structural distresses were observed by surface crack appearance at the pile caps and arches, thus external CFRP strips were used as structural reinforcement to avoid collapse of the viaduct. Still, the structural distress continued, thus a new viaduct parallel to the actual was designed and built using durability criteria. This investigation explains the inspection results, CFRP external reinforcement installation, and the design/construction of the new viaduct using durability criteria.