The Gibraltar Bridge....holy crap!!

[Mday]

so after so many years, they finally came up with a definite plan for a bridge...

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

I don't see it happening anytime soon though, as Morocco just occupied an island (Spanish) just off their coast to be able to fight illegal migration and smuggling better (some dumbass soldier thought it was funny to plant a Moroccan flag there, that was not a smart idea). Spain didn't like it, and with support of the EU and NATO send a small fleet with marines and such which took it back. The Moroccan government had told the explanation of why the soldiers were there, and asked for a diplomatic solution. Morocco shouldn't have sent the soldiers there in the first place without first talking to Spain, and Spain shouldn't immediately have sent a fleet.

 

[bugsysiegel]

Cool, bridges are incredible. Ever seen the Discovery Channel special where they show the footage of "Bouncing Betty?"

 

[SHoddyCOmp]

bugsysiegel - Yea. I dont know if it was on the discovery channel or not, maybe the history channel...In either case though Ive seen the footage, that was amazing.

 

[Nemesis77]

That's a pretty big bridge, don't you think?

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I'll assume the 3000ft towers would be from the floor of the water to the top above the water, and not the actual height above water right? If so it'd be damn impressive to see a 3000ft tower of that size.

 

[brtspears2]

Holy crap!

But 15 billion dollars.... thats going to be alot of Toll fees before it gets paid off.

 

[Noriaki]

Originally posted by: kami
Are the conditions there ever bad? Like hurriances, strong winds, etc.? Maybe they had to use this design for the gibraltar because of the winds. They did tests at 150mph winds and it was fine (it needs to sway though), and it would also survive tsunamis.

The conditions are probably worse there, and 9miles is also a good bit longer than 12.9km (9mi~14.4km).
To the tune of 1.5km, or about 12%.

 

[Linflas]

There is a bridge in the Florida Keys that is 7 miles long known, oddly enough, as 7 Mile Bridge. In the linked photo the bridge on the left missing a segment is the original bridge that was used until the 70's I believe. Many of the original bridges connecting the Keys were leftover from failed attempts to run a railroad between Miami and Key West and are mostly still in place with a segment missing like the one in the photo.
If anyone here has actually sailed through Gilbralter you will appreciate what an engineering feat building a bridge across there would be. When you are on an aircraft carrier in the Med it is much like being on a boat ride at Disney World. No pitching or rocking whatsoever but the moment we sailed through Gilbralter it was back to the long slow rolling and pitching a carrier does in the Atlantic. Since Morocco and Spain just finished a nice little conflict over an uninhabited 2-3 football field sized piece of worthless rock I suspect the political challenges may be as difficult to overcome as the engineering challenges.

 

[Alphazero]

*Osama licks his lips*

 

[UberDave]

Ever read in the bible where they made a tower so high God got pissed and crushed it and blew everyone around the world with wind because they got too close to 'feeling' or 'being' 'god-like'.

 

[Michael1897]

:QWow:Q

 

[Parrotheader]

I love those Discovery/TLC specials because it reminds me of the old Popular Mechanics issues where they'd promise all these amazing things. I'm kind of skeptical about it though even though I know we have (or could develop) the capabilities to do it. It just doesn't seem as practical or cost-efficient as a tunnel and this is something a lot of my engineering buddies also noted when they saw this special a few months ago. I realize they're talking about automobile traffic and not a train like under the English Channel. So venting a 9 mile tunnel with auto pollution is a problem which would have to be addressed; something they quickly dimissed as impossible on the special when trying to justify this even more improbable engineering task

 

[geekender]

Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. You can see the causeway bridge in this picture. The causeway is the world's longest bridge at 24 miles.

 

[Azraele]

Wow.:Q

 

[Chu]

Anyone else notice something REALLY WRONG with that picture of the 7 mile bridge

-Chu

 

[Swanny]

Wow:Q

 

[geekender]

Hope they decide to finish it.

 

[guyver01]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
chesapeake bay bridge-tunnel is a pretty nice piece of work. 20 miles across one of the busiest waterways in the world. granted, the water is pretty shallow there, but they invented all sorts of equipment to build the thing.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

and it's 17.6 miles shore-to-shore

20 miles toll plaza to toll plaza

23 miles including approach roads

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: kami
The reason it's a combination of suspension and cable-stay bridges is that if they only used suspension, the towers would have to be 1 mile high each :Q:Q:Q:Q

Not necessarily. They had the same problem with the Oakland Bay Bridge, a length too long for a conventional suspension. It was solved by building an artificial island as an anchoring point and making that span essentially two suspension bridges linked back to back pic
The same method could possibly be used for creating a series of smaller bridges to cover a longer span.

But this one really smells like the mile long ship, the 5000 foot skyscraper, the mach 20 New York to Tokyo aircraft and all the other pipedream projects of bored engineers. Sure, it might be possible, but is it likely to happen? What would the toll be to recoup costs on a project likely to cost 20 billion+ by the time it was done? With the terrorist activity in Northern Africa who would chance a project that expensive in that area? Given the less than stable politics of North Africa, can you imagine what the border crossing would be like? Ever try crossing from Mexico back to the U.S. during rush hour? Imagine that to the 100th power and you still probably wouldn't get to the hassle of trying to drive from Morrocco to Spain. If the world is ever going to see a bridge built on that scale, it'd probably be built in a single country or between 2 long-time friendly neighbors like the US and Canada. I can't imagine it happening with so many political variables that could shut the thing down before it ever opened.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Alphazero
*Osama licks his lips*

That's what I was thinking.

They gonna paint it red & white like a giant bullseye?

amish

 

[kami]

Not necessarily. They had the same problem with the Oakland Bay Bridge, a length too long for a conventional suspension. It was solved by building an artificial island as an anchoring point and making that span essentially two suspension bridges linked back to back

Not necessarily? I am just going by what the ENGINEERS said. Artificial island is probably out of the question since the depth ranges from something like 1,200-2,300 feet!!

And they seemed pretty serious about it. It's part of a project to link all of the continents by one highway, and whether or not they choose to build this particular bridge, that road will sometime be completed.

 

[guyver01]

Originally posted by: kami
It's part of a project to link all of the continents by one highway

that would be sweeeet!! i'd rather drive to Europe than fly... but ... uhm.... the bridge/tunnel across the atlantic needs to have a few rest stops

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: kami


And they seemed pretty serious about it. It's part of a project to link all of the continents by one highway, and whether or not they choose to build this particular bridge, that road will sometime be completed.

Really? That bridge to Australia is going to be a real bitch. And I can't imagine there's enough car traffic going to Antarctica to be worth it. You'd need to charge half a million for the toll just to pay for the snow plows that would cover the southern half of that bridge. But it's a great idea really. All those people in Burkina Faso that wanted to drive to Brazil would be psyched. Just a short trip up Africa, across southern Europe, across Asia into Russia, cross the Bering Strait into Alaska, a quick blast down the coast of the US and Mexico, over the Panama Canal and down the Andes. But all sarcasm aside, it *was* possible to drive from Europe to Africa. There are bridges across the Bosporus in Turkey and there were some across the Suez. The major bridges spanning the Suez were all knocked out in past wars between Egypt and Israel. There's a major bridge project underway to span the Suez, but rest assured that if Egypt ever starts getting frisky again and looks at Israel with any anger, it'd be the first thing targeted by the Israeli military.

Call me cynical, but I don't believe countries can share a bridge unless they prove they can share something a little simpler first. So far no country in northern Africa has proven that they know how to work and play well with others on a long term basis. Until they do, I can't see anyone stepping forward with the money to finance a project like that no matter how cleverly the engineers can make it work. Anyone planning on having all the countries of the earth joining hands to cooperate on an international highway project is living in a dream world. The plans for that would make building the actual bridge look like childs play.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Originally posted by: bugsysiegel
Cool, bridges are incredible. Ever seen the Discovery Channel special where they show the footage of "Bouncing Betty?"

Tacoma Narrows? Or something else? I thought narrows was 'galloping girdie' or something. Same thing.