Bridge
Bridges are generally exposed to the elements, meaning they generally get a nice dose of sunlight often coupled with some fairly strong crosswinds. For these reasons this “Solar Wind” bridge concept from Italian designers Francesco Colarossi, Giovanna Saracino and Luisa Saracino would seem to make a lot of sense. The proposed bridge would harness solar energy through a grid of solar cells embedded in the road surface, while wind turbines integrated into the spaces between the bridge’s pillars would be used to generate electricity from the crosswinds. Read More
Safer levees and bridges thanks to new erosion and scour detector
Erosion through water flow (called scour) causes the majority of bridge collapses in the U.S and was responsible for the levee failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It has been difficult to assess the erosive potential of a soil profile without extensive digging on site followed up by hours of off site testing, but researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) have developed a device that significantly improves the process by measuring the scour and erosion potential of soils without the need to excavate and remotely test samples. Having tested the sensor in the lab the team are ready to conduct their first field tests. Read More
Luckily there aren’t many countries that drive on the opposite side of the road and share borders. However, they do exist, such as China, which drives on the right, and the former British colony of Hong Kong, and former Portuguese colony of Macau, both which drive on the left. This can pose an interesting problem for engineers and road planners, but Dutch architectural firm, NL Architects, has come up with a bridge with a twist – a concept that not only puts the drivers on the correct side of the road physically, but helps reinforce that fact visually to help get the drivers into the mindset of driving on the opposite side of the road. Read More
From mundane traffic overpasses to marvelous feats of soaring engineering, bridges are something we tend to take for granted - until something goes wrong that is. A team from the University of Michigan is leading a five-year, $19 million project to engineer an intelligent infrastructure monitoring system designed to prevent tragedies like the collapse of the Interstate 35 West bridge over the Mississippi river in 2007 in which 13 people were killed and 145 were injured. Read More
May 1, 2008 A 28 kilometer-long bridge is being planned to link the Middle East and Africa. The US$20 billion bridge will become the longest suspension bridge in the world and tower some 400 meters above the water, with at least three spans of around 2700m each. Undoubtedly set to become one of the wonders of the modern world, the project includes plans to build entire cities at each end, linked by a six-lane motorway and a four-track railway. Adding complexity to the enormous task, which is expected to take some 12 years to complete, the bridge it is to be built in an area of intense seismic activity. Read More
October 24, 2006 Need a bridge? Like really urgently? The army often needs such a capability and when the need is great, there’s always a way. The PSB2 offers the latest generation of modular bridging capability combined with maximum mobility and minimum overall costs. The PSB2 is operated by a crew of two and can carry loads of military weight class MLC 70 for tracked vehicles and up to MLC 100 for wheeled vehicles. Thanks to an optronics observation, driving and range-finding system as well as an IR imager, laser and CCD camera, a bridge can be launched day or night under tank protection. The special advantage of the modular concept lies in the numerous bridging solutions that can be carried. The Rapid Bridge Launcher 2 carries three modules each 9.7m in length. Each individual module can overcome most obstacles, as statistics show that 80 percent of them are less than nine meters long. Read More
The long-standing project to build the world’s largest bridge between Sicily and mainland Italy has cleared one of its final remaining obstacles and now seems certain to go ahead – the announcement of the winning tender by the Italian construction company Impregilo was made late last week. Impregilo will begin work on the project next year and is expected to finish construction of the world’s largest bridge by 2012. The 3.8 billion euro bridge will cross the Strait of Messina with a single 3300 metre central span, eclipsing the current longest span of the Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan (1991 metres) by two thirds again. The bridge’s total length will be 3,666 metres, with a deck of 60.4 metres, six traffic lanes, two service lanes and two railway lines. The bridge’s statistics dwarf all of the World's Greatest Bridges. Read More
