Road–rail bridges are bridges shared by road transport and rail transport. They are sometimes called combined bridges.
The road and rail on these bridges may be segregated, so that railway vehicles may operate at the same time as road vehicles (e.g., the Sydney Harbour Bridge). The rail tracks can be above the roadway, or vice versa (e.g., a truss bridge).
The Øresund Bridge or Öresund Bridge is a combined railway and motorway cable-stayed bridge across the Øresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. It is the second longest bridge in Europe and combines both roadway and railway in a single structure, consisting of international European route E20 and the Øresund Line respectively. It runs nearly 8 kilometres (5 miles) from the Swedish coast to the artificial island of Peberholm in the middle of the strait. The Øresund Link is completed by the 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) Øresund Tunnel from Peberholm to the Danish island of Amager.
Construction began in 1995 and it opened to traffic on 1 July 2000. The bridge, as part of the Øresund Link, directly connects the road and rail networks of the Scandinavian Peninsula with Mainland Europe, via the Great Belt Fixed Link (constructed 1988–1998) connecting Zealand to Funen and thence to the Jutland Peninsula. Both projects helped to lessen the isolation of Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia from the rest of the continent. A data cable also makes the Øresund Link the backbone of Internet data transmission between central Europe and Sweden.
The Afghanistan–Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge is a road–rail bridge across the Oxus River in Central Asia, connecting the town of Hairatan in Afghanistan with the town of Termez in Uzbekistan. It was built by the Soviet Union in the former Uzbek SSR and opened in 1982 as a military supply route during the Soviet–Afghan War. Today, it is used for trade and travel purposes between the two independent countries.