Hidak Zala megyében (Zalaegerszeg, 2004)

Függelék

Summary County Zala is situated in the South-western corner of the country. Its natural regions are Keszthely-mountain and Zala-hills. The area of the county considerably changed several times during the history (its largest size was 6000 km

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, today it amounts to 3800 km

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). The country is very rich in waterways (Mura, Zala, Kerka, Válicka, Principális-csatorna, Cserta), besides its settlement network is among the most dense ones in the country (257 settlements presently). Its road network is known from the Román ages on, the remains from the ever earlier ages are being excavated nowadays, The Northern-southern so-called Amber Road led thorough Zalalövő, its bridge has stood on the same spot for almost 2000 years. Close to Fenékpuszta, there was a ferry crossing. Important Western-Eastern roads alsó led across the county. Undoubtedly, there were bridges on river Zala already in the 13"

1 century, this very fact can be proved by several settlement names (Kehida, Barlabáshida etc) and by the documents about bridge tolls: Zalakaros, Zalacséb. The rather dense road network in the Middle Ages is known based on ferry crossings, road and bridge tolls. For the protection of bridges and ferries, many plain castles and fortresses were built where, of course, bridges were alsó found. Their locations are known from military engineering surveys of 16th century and archaeological excavations. During the Turkish occupation, mainly after the seize of the castle Kanizsa the importance of the crossing points in Zala-valley and the fortresses built for their protection increased after having driven out the Turks from the country, the road network changed, the first military survey (1784) and the detailed road map of the first county engineer (1792) included and expanded road network and many bridges. In 1784, there were 572 bridges in the country. A detailed road survey is known from 1832. It shows that alsó a high number of arched bridges were built from the laté 18"

1 century. The most significant among them is the five-span Zalabridge at Zalalövő (each span amounts to 6 fathoms), besides 195 other arched bridges were included in the survey, among others, the nice, multi-span bridges at Hegyesd, Diszel and Káptalanfa which are still being under operation. (These bridges can be presently found in county Veszprém, the region over laké Balaton was a part of county Zala till World War II). In Zalaszentgothárd, the four-span, brick-arched Zala-bridge was completed in 1846. It was not damaged during World War II. In 1925, the bridge has lost its function since the new Zalabridge was built close to it. There were 374 timber bridges in 1832, among others, the one by Muraszerdahely is 114 m (60 fathoms) long, the one by Andráshida 36 fathoms and the one at Hídvég 40 fathoms long bridge with "pile bow" type foundation. From this age, alsó bridge design drawings are available. The first steel bridges were built on railway lines, e.g. at Murakeresztúr in 1860. Highway steel truss bridges were constructed by Muraszerdahely (1904 and Letenye (1913) using truncated section. Relatively few steel bridges were built in the county. Actually, three Zalabridges (Balatonhídvég, Fenékpuszta, Zalabér) and one Kerka-bridge (Zalabaksa) were completed between 1926 and 1930. The use of reinforced concrete in bridge construction started with Wünsch-system in 1892, then it became widespread with the 217 SUMMARY FÜGGELÉK