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Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

independent.co.uk

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Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#121

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

screye wrote: post #15

Very impressive. The economic angle is a bit confusing. Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China, without much international tourism or trade. Wikipedia indicates it is meant to increase tourism, but even China's most attractive regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall, Chengdu, Chongqing) are under-visited. I can't imagine that Guizhou will be on foreign tourist's agenda f…

I suspect that it's a "bragging rights" thing, more than anything else.

Nations, companies, etc., build these things to "show off." It's nothing new, the Babylonians, Sumerians, and Egyptians did it.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#122

Post by GoToRO »

stavros wrote: post #76
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really don't understand all the hyperbole around this bridge. It's a suspension bridge, so the relevant bits are at the pylons I understand what you're saying, but the experience is quite different for the people driving over it compared to a bridge where it isn't a 2000 foot drop.

Yeah, I know it doesn't matter how high the actual bridge is, just the length and pylons, but it feels like it matters!

More height, stronger winds. It matters.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#123

Post by lotsofpulp »

xwolfi wrote: post #83
MangoToupe wrote: post #55

I find it hard to swallow my jealousy of the chinese. It's hard to imagine america collectively accomplishing much of anything in my lifetime.

Well it's not the same game. Here in China we're in this phase of accomplishing big stuff to help each other and flex a bit and wow at our own development. When the British colonized America, it was exactly the same - an insane accomplishment to capture and re-develop that land into something half-working so far away. When China starts capturing and colonizing other continents, you can start being really jealous ! No…

> I think people in the US have nice stuff to look forward to, like I don't know, a holiday in Disneyland with their kids,

Probably not for most Americans these days:

https://archive.is/CLoEC

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#124

Post by 6LLvveMx2koXfwn »

I was going to make some joke about not wanting to be the dude driving over the bridge for the load test - entirely presuming there was some more sophisticated way to load test new bridges . . . but no:

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/load-testing...

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#125

Post by epolanski »

stickfigure wrote: post #89
epolanski wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has incredible engineers and architects. Say what you want but the only region in the world I went that felt like looking forward is Asia, even borderline decaying countries like Japan are clearly looking forward, you can see it from what and how they build, and not just in major centers.

[flagged]

I wasn't really focusing much on the tourism part.

I was more pointing to the fact that asiatic countries seem much more focused on the present and future in a way we are culturally not. How and what they build is just an aspect of it.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#126

Post by Fraterkes »

maxglute wrote: post #50
screye wrote: post #15

Very impressive. The economic angle is a bit confusing. Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China, without much international tourism or trade. Wikipedia indicates it is meant to increase tourism, but even China's most attractive regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall, Chengdu, Chongqing) are under-visited. I can't imagine that Guizhou will be on foreign tourist's agenda f…

> reduces travel time between the two sides of the canyon from two hours to two minutes. Think of it this way. Every 2 hours round trip to 2 minutes saves imported fossil. For trucking/freight that's like ~$80 of diesel both ways. PRC construction workers, though less abundant is cheaper than it ever will be. So best time to build infra is always now, especially one that reduces long tail imports. Every piece of infr…

Why is construction cheaper than it ever will be? Because wages are rising in China?

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#127

Post by CarVac »

pcl wrote: post #64

I really don't understand all the hyperbole around this bridge. It's a suspension bridge, so the relevant bits are at the pylons, which just happen to be on either side of a huge canyon. It clocks in at #14 on Wikipedia's list of longest suspension bridges, with a main span that is 603 meters shorter (2023 meters vs 1420) than the longest. More interestingly, to me at least, is the fact that 31 of the longest 50 are…

I feel like the metric needs to be "greatest distance of road from solid ground" or "greatest distance from linear interpolation between ground attachment points".

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#128

Post by pcl »

GoToRO wrote: post #122
stavros wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I know it doesn't matter how high the actual bridge is, just the length and pylons, but it feels like it matters!

More height, stronger winds. It matters.

Is this true? Does the center of a canyon have higher wind speeds than the edges of that canyon? And what about gusts? I'd assume that boundaries are more turbulent.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#129

Post by potato3732842 »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #58
potato3732842 wrote: post #13

Takes 3yr to replace a 50ft I beam bridge across a small river where I live, mostly because of unnecessary permitting and process. When you add up all the months here and there for every sign off from every party at each stage it adds up fast.

Unnecessary until it's removed and a bridge collapses. Then it's the incompetent government.

[flagged]

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#130

Post by codingdave »

pcl wrote: post #64

I really don't understand all the hyperbole around this bridge. It's a suspension bridge, so the relevant bits are at the pylons, which just happen to be on either side of a huge canyon. It clocks in at #14 on Wikipedia's list of longest suspension bridges, with a main span that is 603 meters shorter (2023 meters vs 1420) than the longest. More interestingly, to me at least, is the fact that 31 of the longest 50 are…

What hyperbole?

All I'm seeing is fairly straightforward fact-based announcements. "The tallest bridge has opened - here it is." If that doesn't interest you, fine... but the reports are not hyperbole.

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