It is Alive in the Lab: When completed, the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge, will include the longest self-anchored suspension bridge in the world. Self-anchored sets itself apart from typical bridges that anchor their cables from the bridge to the land. In the case of the Bay Bridge, the supporting cable will be cemented into the roadway, hoisted over a massive center column, and cemented in the roadway on the other side.
5 comments:
I'm like actually an engineer. Just in case we weren't clear. So I find bridges absolutely fascinating. The engineering that goes into something that is stable and flexible at the same time is always fascinating. It also serves as a good reminder for techies and set designers that you CAN build a flat the flies down and like does a bunch of cool stuff. I really just think it's cool. I'm sorry I don't have anything more insightful, other than wow.
This bridge is essentially the gateway from Delaware to anywhere interesting (Baltimore, D.C, the entire western United States). I can't count the number of times either I or my parents have driven over this bridge. The point is, this bridge is crucial to everyone who lives in Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland. It's great to see that this bridge is being structured and re-supported so that it will last for generations to come. The fact that they've put in holes for support cables that can be used in 150 years is surprisingly good planning!
This is extremely cool how much they have thought about for now and way into the future. With all of the earthquake things that they have put into the bridge makes it so amazing I just hope when it comes to the day it needs to work it does and does not kill anyone if it fails in some way. Also the fact that they built in things for the future so they can fix the bridge at a lower cost and don’t have to reengineer things and have to guess that it will work. It would be cool to see an article in a few years about how all of those planning things worked. I hope when they open this bridge that it is amazing and great.
This summer I got to go on this tour! It was amazing! The bridge is pretty freaking impressive and to go under in a boat is really cool, if you have a chance within the next year to go to San Fransisco go on a tour! My favorite fact that I learned on the tour is that in the current Bay Bridge there are some birds that have made nests and become residences. So in the new bridge they have built little out croppings for the birds and they are going to lure them over to the other one before they demolish the current bridge (only in SF, right?). The bike and walking paths are really cool and also they don't have to constantly keep painting the bridge like they do the Golden Gate because they made there own special kind of paint that will corrode more slowly. The new bay bridge is sweet I'm all in favor of the new changes, and now it is just about the number one place I would want to be during an earthquake.
As a Bay Area native, news about the new Eastern span of the Bay Bridge has been around for years. I've been hearing about it for most of my lifetime and the fact that it's so close to being complete is extremely exciting. Having been able to see the new span in person, it's pretty amazing. Finding a solution for what to do with the Eastern half of the bridge has been a long debate, but the new span seems to eliminate the possibility of another debate similar to this one in the future. As the article pointed out, "the engineering infrastructure for a facelift is being put in now," which certainly thinks ahead, and plans a long life for the magnificent bridge. And of course, from an engineering perspective, the bridge is just incredible in its strength--something it needs to have in earthquake land!!
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