Bridges...

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crfriend
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Bridges...

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I enjoy some fairly robust communication with a dentist pal of mine in Ireland, and with whom I share a passion for engineering even though we both work in vastly different fields. Structural engineering is especially poignant in both its seeming simplicity and beauty and its sometimes maddening complexity. Music also plays a role, and one piece of music I have held dear for a good many years is Bill Staines' Bridges. They are stone and steel, and wood and wire, and they can turn two things to one. What a magical notion.

A new bridge, the longest of its type in the world, is getting set to open on the Emerald Isle, and in proper fashion it is being well celebrated. Some detail, albeit in Discovery Channel-style hyperbole is available on YouTube. Beyond that, some absolutely exquisite imagery also exists that counts entirely as art. Blessed be the bridge-builders.

... And if someone should ask us where we're off and bound today, we will tell them "Building bridges" and be off and on our way... Yes... What a dream.
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Re: Bridges...

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Amazing - thoroughly entertaining - except for the length of time to view the video it was almost as long as the time to build the damn bridge - wee bit of hyperbole !

Kirbstone has it been opened to traffic and have you made an inaugural transit ?

When we lost a section of the I35W in Minneapolis MN USA a similar method of bridge construction was used less the topside cabling (not that long a span - maybe three soccer fields).

So today we are building different types of 7 Wonders of the (Modern day) World - Pyramids - Light Houses - Colossus at Rhodes - Temples and Gardens - Bah Hum Bug !
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Re: Bridges...

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The Netherlands are a delta, formed by three main rivers of Europe. We had to make a lot of bridges to cross those rivers because of the extreme dense population. Being a mechanical engineer, I'm of course interested in this kind of constructions. The only problem is the way they make those videos. It sounds like an exciting novel with big problems and disasters around every corner. In reality it is business as usual and the biggest problem may be the coffee arriving at the work place is not steaming hot.

I worked at a shipyard and if we built ships with the same amount of trouble, half the personnel would be suffering from heart attacks or ulsters. Before a project like this gets underway, a lot of research has been done and they know of all the problem spots. And there is always a Plan B at the ready.
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Re: Bridges...

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beachlion wrote:I worked at a shipyard and if we built ships with the same amount of trouble, half the personnel would be suffering from heart attacks or ulsters. Before a project like this gets underway, a lot of research has been done and they know of all the problem spots. And there is always a Plan B at the ready.
Like when building those mammoth huge cruise ships inside a shipyard building and realizing that the top three decks have to be built outside of that shipyard building - wee clearance problem !

Same similar problem with the draft clearance of those small boats using the canals.

Those Rhine river cruise boats the ships bridge is on hydraulics lowering to clear low bridges/obstructions.

Not Plan "B" but original blue prints - ya we knew that would happened no Plan "B" necessary !
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Re: Bridges...

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r.m.anderson wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 3:17 amAmazing - thoroughly entertaining - except for the length of time to view the video it was almost as long as the time to build the damn bridge - wee bit of hyperbole !
I did caution the reader about that. Programmes like that are made as much to entertain as to inform, so tend to contain a lot of stuff that's a wee bit over the top. That's not the way things work in the real world; the stakes are simply too high.

The short video was as much art as anything else, and that's the one I enjoyed the most.
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Re: Bridges...

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r.m.anderson wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 3:17 amAmazing - thoroughly entertaining - except for the length of time to view the video it was almost as long as the time to build the damn bridge - wee bit of hyperbole !
I watched it in about 4 minutes, just taking 5 to 15-second samples throughout. I don't think I missed much, and still had a fair amount of repetition.
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Re: Bridges...

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In my early career I worked in structural engineering. Think steel framed and cladded buildings such as factories and you'll get the picture. Consequently I may be one of the few people who can go into a new building such as an airport and spend time looking up at the ceiling to admire the steelwork construction!!!!
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Re: Bridges...

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Sinned wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 5:31 pm In my early career I worked in structural engineering. Think steel framed and cladded buildings such as factories and you'll get the picture. Consequently I may be one of the few people who can go into a new building such as an airport and spend time looking up at the ceiling to admire the steelwork construction!!!!
I'm another one of those few people. I always want to see how they connect the beams of steel structures. ;)

When I'm in downtown Allentown and see all the steel constructions for the new buildings, I have not much confidence in the strength. Maybe I'm too used to the strickter rules in Europe with higher safety margins. Margins like about 3.6 for general purposes, 5 for hoisting and lifting and 10 for steel cables.
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Re: Bridges...

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Hi Guys,

Yes, Carl did wonders getting that link onto the Forum. I couldn't even send it to him as an E-mail attachment, so Carl had to go hunting for it himself.

Yes I also think the twangy commentary is way over the top and as BL says, it's just another job to be gotten on with. The BAM firm building it is Dutch anyway. What I found most instructive was the computer animation of what was next to be done and the actual filming of them doing it on site.

RM, They were aiming at a December 20th opening (for Christmas), but I'd be greatly surprised if they managed that. Anyway in the greater scheme of things a few more weeks' delay won't matter much (I don't live down there!) and they've been waiting for it for half a Century, after all!

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Re: Bridges...

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Kirbstone wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:08 pmYes I also think the twangy commentary is way over the top and as BL says, it's just another job to be gotten on with. The BAM firm building it is Dutch anyway. What I found most instructive was the computer animation of what was next to be done and the actual filming of them doing it on site.
Indeed I was somewhat put off with all the breathless narration, but hearing the voices of some of the folks involved in the project brought a smile to my face. The computer animation is something that I understand full-well as I was working professionally on CADD/CAM systems pretty much throughout the 1980s and 1990s and when putting together a 45-second clip could take several days' worth of computer time to generate all the still frames and then to stitch them into a movie.

As far as locating the links, that was pretty simple once I knew where to look; after that, my reading speed was a great advantage and allowed me to zero in on the quarry within minutes. The addition of Bill Staines' music is a reflection of how I feel about the world of civil engineering in general, and it's worth recalling that I worked for a large engineering firm as a computer sysadmin through the 1990s. During that tenure I was fortunate to commute through the work-site that was bringing one of our designs to fruition, and I was a key enabler in that by virtue of keeping the computers running smoothly.
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Re: Bridges...

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crfriend wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 1:34 am A new bridge, the longest of its type in the world, is getting set to open on the Emerald Isle, and in proper fashion it is being well celebrated. Some detail, albeit in Discovery Channel-style hyperbole is available on YouTube. Beyond that, some absolutely exquisite imagery also exists that counts entirely as art. Blessed be the bridge-builders.
Carl - both of those links are to the same destination!
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Re: Bridges...

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Kirbstone wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:08 pm......... The BAM firm building it is Dutch anyway. .......
I preferred not to boast about that fact.
https://www.bam.com/en

A Dutch company has to be in very good standing before they deserve the title "Royal."

The Italians should have given the contract to a Dutch company. They know how to fight water and weather. Now Venice is still sinking thanks to the corruption and incompetence of the hired contractors.
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Re: Bridges...

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FranTastic444 wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 11:15 pmCarl - both of those links are to the same destination!
Aw, Hell! How did I screw that up?

It's fixed. The "art" one has been (hopefully) corrected. The guy who shot the thing must have quite the impressive drone and one heck of a high-res camera for payload. There are several of his videos on the construction project up there.

I also need to fix the HTML-generator to open links in a new tab (which I had to do in phpBB 3.0.14)... It's always some damned thing!
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Re: Bridges...

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When I worked in civil engineering and construction, my claim to fame was that I helped with the setting out for a section of the "retaining wall" around Winson Green prison.

Here is a link to the Google view of the site. I moved on to another project before the old wall was pulled down, but when they came to that part of the project they were expecting to come across lots of human bones. When inmates were hanged at the prison, they were buried at the foot of the old wall in an unmarked grave.

Over the last few months I've enjoyed watching the clearing of a site next to our office (an old concrete multistory car park) and the insertion of very deep slurry walls to act as the foundations for what will be the second tallest building in downtown Boston. This video gives an idea of what was going in (it is the same company - East Coast Slurry). To give you some idea of how deep the foundations run, you will be able to see the red crane in the video lifting a re-bar cage into position. For the build site next to us, they were inserting two of these cages on top of each other (near the full height of the red crane) into each trench. I guessed at this being 150 feet down, but my boss (who smokes with some of the construction workers when she is in town) was told that some of them are nearer 200 feet deep. Apparently this method of construction is well suited to the geology of the Boston area.
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Re: Bridges...

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