Matagorda Electricity Pylon / Matagorda Tower (Puerto Real)

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The Matagorda Electricity Pylon, also known as Matagorda Tower is the pylon on the west side of the 132kV three-phase AC powerlines crossing of Cádiz Bay , Spain. This powerline crossing is a part of the powerline running from Puerto Real substation to Térmica substation situated on the peninsula upon which the city of Cádiz stands.

The Matagorda Electricity Pylon, 158 metres tall, ca´rries two electrical circuits for three phase AC current with a voltage of 132 kV. It was conceived and designed by the Italian engineer, Alberto Toscano, and it is of a very unconventional construction.

Matagorda Electricity Pylon is a hollow tower resembling to a truncated cone (or frustrum). The frustrum tapers from a base 20.7 metres in diameter to a crown six metres in diameter. Matagorda Electricity Pylon stands on plinths of reinforced concrete and has a single crossbar with rhomboid profile on its top, on which the insulators carrying the conductors are fixed. T
Matagorda Electricity Pylon consists of galvanized steel components forming a network of rhombuses enclosed within rectangles. Inside the steel framework, a heliacal staircase runs up to the crossbar.

The unconventional design of Matagorda Electricity Pylon was chosen because Spanish steel mills were unable to produce massive steel carriers at the end of 1950ies, when Matagorda Electricity Pylon was built, and importing such structures was impossible because of the Francisco Franco regime.

Matagorda Electricity Pylon was constructed under the supervision and direction of Remo Scalla, a close friend of Alberto Toscana. The same team of Toscana, the designer, and Scalla, the builder, also joined forces in building the structures supporting the lines that span the Strait of Messina, between Calabria, on the mainland of Italy, and the island of Sicily. Building Matagorda Electricity Pylon started during the latter part of 1957. It was finished in 1960. Upon completion, Matagorda Electricity Pylon got as its twin on the other site of Cadiz Bay a price by the Spanish National Institute of Industry.

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilones_de_C%C3%A1diz
en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0000287
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