191–200 of 214 posts
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...
https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/u3dqja/how...
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> 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.
I think the point being made is that if you followed two ridgelines that make up a valley up to a common summit you could just jam a plank in there. You've got the world's highest bridge. It's only 4 ft long, but it is technically a bridge. I'd be more interested to know how they raised individual components into place. But I presume they just started with small cables, then used those to raise larger ones into place…
But the "user experience" of someone driving over the bridge is vastly different, to the point where I know specifically of some people who wouldn't be willing to drive over it, and it's not "hyperbole" to point out how high this bridge is compared to the ground below.
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…
The thing that stuck out to me was this: > The 2,890-metre-long structure, which took more than three years to complete, reduces travel time between the two sides of the canyon from two hours to two minutes. Pretty impressive. I feel like things in the US take a lot longer and cost a lot more. The prime example is the second avenue subway extension which has been planned since 1920. But I just searched for a few sign…
Places like China, for better or worse, are not burdened with the problem of making sure every constituency is accommodated.
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Chinese civil engineers, and engineering orgs, are good because they get a lot of practice. In the West, and especially in the US, individuals and orgs don't get practice, so when they finally do get a new contract they have to stumble around for 5-10 years figuring out all the institutional knowledge that was lost. By the time they figure it out, the project is over budget, so it gets canceled, and then it's 20 year…
I know it would be attacked politically, but I wish in the US we would be more open to hiring foreign firms for these kinds of projects. Could we have high-speed rail if we just asked some French or Japanese company to build it for us? And we should structure contracts with them in a way that keeps the plans from being changed for political reasons. "Sorry state senator, we can't alter the route to pass through that…
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To punish them for building a cool bridge or?
It's only a punishment if the bridge falls down. But if someone is making truck drivers drive heavy trucks out onto a bridge to "test" if it will stand up under the load it only seems fair to me that the engineers who designed and built it take the risk alongside them.
Youtube link for the bridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mytGMsn4wvk
It's hilariously depressing to imagine how impossible it would be to build something like that in the US. It's not only the fact that it's an engineering feat—it's also the fact that it was built in such a human-centric way. The cafe at the top, the light show with the water. These things are all superfluous, but make these projects exciting and add novelty which makes these areas just fun places to be. The U.S., in…
But perhaps more importantly, getting insights into how the government building things gives the people who can grant contracts tremendous political leverage and power. It is remarkable to see that what he built was definitely good for New Yorkers (although as the book points out, really for rich and white New Yorkers) and the distortions they caused in the political machine caused some people serious grief from loss of property to loss of their entire livelihood.
Authoritarian systems can operate like that but it comes at a tremendous cost.
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It's hilariously depressing to imagine how impossible it would be to build something like that in the US. It's not only the fact that it's an engineering feat—it's also the fact that it was built in such a human-centric way. The cafe at the top, the light show with the water. These things are all superfluous, but make these projects exciting and add novelty which makes these areas just fun places to be. The U.S., in…
The two longest floating bridges in the world are in Seattle, Washington. The longest, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, has a mixed use lane for cycling and walking and supposedly took 5 years to construct after construction started (ignoring that it replaced a bridge that existed there and also planning took longer, I'm not sure how to compare that). Seattle also has the world's only floating bridge that has rail on…
I realize that Seattle has the only floating bridge with rail on it. Actually my mom is the lead photographer for Sound Transit, the agency in charge with it's development. Sound Transit.. to say the least, is a huge embarrassment for the region. They're way over budget, way behind schedule on all of their initiatives with the lightrail. Sure, there are engineering marvels that exist here and there on the project—but it's not a testament to the U.S's ability to deliver infrastructure at a reasonable speed or budget.
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It's hilariously depressing to imagine how impossible it would be to build something like that in the US. It's not only the fact that it's an engineering feat—it's also the fact that it was built in such a human-centric way. The cafe at the top, the light show with the water. These things are all superfluous, but make these projects exciting and add novelty which makes these areas just fun places to be. The U.S., in…
The Penobscot Narrows Bridge (opened, 2006) was the first thing that sprang to mind. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penobscot_Narrows_Bridge_and... One end has an observation deck, built just for fun! It’s on the slower, non I-95 route up through Maine to Bar Harbor / Acadia National Park.
"[...] On February 26, 2014, in the wake of another suicide from the bridge, independent Rep. Joe Brooks of Winterport proposed emergency legislation to the Maine Legislature to require the installation of a suicide barrier on the bridge.[22] This proposal was rejected due to cost, as a barrier was estimated to cost between $500,000 and $1 million, plus additional costs for regular inspections. As an alternative, two solar-powered phones were installed on each end of the bridge in May 2015 which connect users to a suicide hotline. The phones cost $30,000. State officials were aware of instances the phones were not functional, and increased inspections of them to weekly from the previous monthly. They could not determine if the phones were functional when a March 5, 2017 suicide, the first since the phones were installed, occurred. The phones were found to be out of order on June 23, 2017, when an abandoned car on the bridge resulted in a search of the Penobscot River by authorities looking for its driver.[7] The emergency phones on the Penobscot Narrows Bridge were reported out of order following another suicide in 2021.[9][23] They were subsequently replaced.[24] In May 2022, the Maine legislature was reportedly planning to "pull together a study group on suicides by bridge."[25] Funding was subsequently approved for a barrier, but the installation slated for 2024 was delayed for further testing..."
Why are our systems like this? There is no culture of accountability, for one. There is also no desire to dream big, anymore, it seems.
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The Penobscot Narrows Bridge (opened, 2006) was the first thing that sprang to mind. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penobscot_Narrows_Bridge_and... One end has an observation deck, built just for fun! It’s on the slower, non I-95 route up through Maine to Bar Harbor / Acadia National Park.
Again, the wikipedia article that you linked points to a preposterous insufficiency in our ability to maintain infrastructure: "[...] On February 26, 2014, in the wake of another suicide from the bridge, independent Rep. Joe Brooks of Winterport proposed emergency legislation to the Maine Legislature to require the installation of a suicide barrier on the bridge.[22] This proposal was rejected due to cost, as a barri…
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Yeah, that's just not true. The Democratic Party is absolutely complicit in everything going on. The term used is "controlled opposition". With the current government shutdown, I think it's taken the Republicans by surprise that the Democrats have (thus far) actually stood up for something and they really don't know what to do because it so rarely happens. Like why wasn't this happening with the last debt ceiling inc…
>The Democratic Party is absolutely complicit in everything going on. The Democrats simply have no power to stop anything going on. If you think they do, then you don't understand how the government works at all . Every single thing you mention Democrats doing wrong, is because they have tried to compromise . If one side dictates what everyone else should do, you don't get a functioning country, you get a lot of diss…
You can try to convince yourself that an elected administration has no actual power to do anything because of $reason (law, how government works, searching to compromise, not antagonizing people, etc), but this exercise in self delusion is not very convincing when the current administration, clearly, do not look like they suffer from the same paralysis.
Like you can try to delude yourself that today is impossible to build great infrastructure because of regulations, maintenance costs, respect for environment, individual freedoms, etc, and Bam! Another country just build it, compliant with the state of the art engineering and respectful of environment without slavery etc. Like they party on your rain.