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The new Sunshine Skyway has a lot of rip rap around the pilings to protect them. Rip rap is a very useful material around bridge pilings. It is rock (usually very large pieces) of uniform size. The size is determined by the engineer and is carefully selected for the setting. It is placed around the pilings and it protects them from flooding (excessively high currents can wash out a piling) and impacts from boats, floating debris, etc.

ORIGINAL: captskillet

thats why I assumed that.......by the time you get to Vicksburg & points south the river is a mile wide (or more) so there's room for pilings w/steel overhead supports (seems to my feeble mind much more stout) and room for barges (and from Baton Rouge south ocean going ships...that bridge in BR is way high over the river) to pass.

PS.............whats up Mr Peabody????? where we goin tonite????? [;)] [:D]

Hopefully to the space station next Tuesday, if the weather doesn't get us[:D]

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

The new Sunshine Skyway has a lot of rip rap around the pilings to protect them. Rip rap is a very useful material around bridge pilings. It is rock (usually very large pieces) of uniform size. The size is determined by the engineer and is carefully selected for the setting. It is placed around the pilings and it protects them from flooding (excessively high currents can wash out a piling) and impacts from boats, floating debris, etc.

There isnt room in the Mississippi up here for all that. Its only 9 feet deep and about 400 feet wide.

Ahhh....................The Sunshine Skyway is 29,040 feet long

Ponchartrain Causeway is 26 miles long...................of course the Lake isnt as deep as Tampa Bay either!!!!

I used that Ponchartrain Causeway to evac from New Orleans when Hurricane Georges blew through.  Got me out of a 10 hour traffic jam when they opened it up.  Didn't even charge us tolls that day.  [:)]

It is placed around the pilings and it protects them from flooding (excessively high currents can wash out a piling) and impacts from boats, floating debris, etc.

And given the fact that a big freighter knocked down Skyway version #1, that whole "impacts from boats" is pretty important to safeguard against!  (but as I recall, it got bashed by a barge about 4 years ago as well).

-F-

Hi, worse part is that there are bridges in even sadder shape. I was at home when it came down and got a heads up from work. The company that I work for ships most of the hospital supplies in the twin cities. Needless to say I was  scrambling my drivers to be on standby in case the hospitals started screaming for resupply. As bad as this was it could have been a lot more tragic. I still shake my head at how many times that I cross that bridge in a week.
 
 
 

I did a motorcycle trip to California earlier this year. On the way back I crossed the Oakland bay bridge, lower level. While crossing I was wondering if I was on the bridge that that colapsed during the '86 earthquake. When I got back to Chicago I learned that there was a truck accident on that bridge and the upper level collapsed. I now do not like crossing big bridges. Irrational, I know.

ORIGINAL: Feinder

It is placed around the pilings and it protects them from flooding (excessively high currents can wash out a piling) and impacts from boats, floating debris, etc.

And given the fact that a big freighter knocked down Skyway version #1, that whole "impacts from boats" is pretty important to safeguard against!  (but as I recall, it got bashed by a barge about 4 years ago as well).

-F-

Yes, but the new bridge has been designed to handle such hits (well the pilings have. There is a better barrier there now.

Don Phillips (Transportation journalist, wrote for the Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune, has a regular column in "Trains" magazine) mentioned several times in his column that the whole Interstate system was designed for a life of 25-30 years and when you remember that most of it was built in the 1960s .. 'nuff said. I've read somewhere that the American Society of Civil Engineers reckons there are 70000 bridges that need repairs or overhauls and that it would cost about 1000 billion (10^12) dollars to get the Interstate system back to specs. "Deferred maintenance" on the infrastructure has always been a popular way of saving money. I guess all those glorious tax cuts of past years will come back to haunt the U.S. taxpayers real soon now.

BTW, in 1995 I spent three weeks in St. Pete on holidays. You could see the Sunshine Skyway from my apartment. A glorious sight! We drove several times across it, on the way to Sarasota, and one time we stopped at the bridge for a pit stop and a closer look. I'm glad whoever was responsible for having the bridge built went for such an impressive design. I've always thought those cable-stayed girder bridges are aesthetically the most elegant bridge designs.

ORIGINAL: pbear

Public Works Project build by the lowest bidder.

This reminds me of what an Apollo astronaut is said to have answered when someone asked him how it felt to sit in the capsule just before liftoff - "How would you feel sitting on top of a million parts, every single one of which was the lowest bid?"

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: mikemike

This reminds me of what an Apollo astronaut is said to have answered when someone asked him how it felt to sit in the capsule just before liftoff - "How would you feel sitting on top of a million parts, every single one of which was the lowest bid?"

I love this one!!! [X(]


Leo "Apollo11"

ORIGINAL: mikemike

I guess all those glorious tax cuts of past years will come back to haunt the U.S. taxpayers real soon now.

Do you honestly believe that any of that money would have been spent on something like bridge maintenance? or anything useful for that matter?

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

ORIGINAL: mikemike

I guess all those glorious tax cuts of past years will come back to haunt the U.S. taxpayers real soon now.

Do you honestly believe that any of that money would have been spent on something like bridge maintenance? or anything useful for that matter?

mmmm? Well let's see. To pay for Reagan's first tax cut the DOT was cut by 10.5%. You know the DOT, they do things like pay for highway maintance and silly stuff like that.
And what happened in the next budget? Let's see, ah yes, cut again.
Does that mean I am blaming the problem on tax cuts. If I were honest I would have to say I am qualified enough to know. Do I honestly believe that the money would have been spent on something like bridge maintenance? The budgets would say yes. Cut enough to make a difference? Here again I am not qualified enough to know.

Do you honestly believe that any of that money would have been spent on something like bridge maintenance? or anything useful for that matter?

No. Politicians the world over will always try to find ways of funding their pet projects even if it means robbing other, more important projects.

Chez

Well before this gets into a who's who of politics. 90% of the states (Minnesota) fuel taxes are paid in the metro area. 50% of the funds generated are spent here. Not saying the other 40% shouldnt be spent in "out state" areas, but they build things out there just to "use up" that money rather than giving it back to the state to be re-allocated to where its really needed.

ORIGINAL: grumpyman

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

ORIGINAL: mikemike

I guess all those glorious tax cuts of past years will come back to haunt the U.S. taxpayers real soon now.

Do you honestly believe that any of that money would have been spent on something like bridge maintenance? or anything useful for that matter?

mmmm? Well let's see. To pay for Reagan's first tax cut the DOT was cut by 10.5%. You know the DOT, they do things like pay for highway maintance and silly stuff like that.
And what happened in the next budget? Let's see, ah yes, cut again.
Does that mean I am blaming the problem on tax cuts. If I were honest I would have to say I am qualified enough to know. Do I honestly believe that the money would have been spent on something like bridge maintenance? The budgets would say yes. Cut enough to make a difference? Here again I am not qualified enough to know.

Interesting, I've never seen congressional notes that linked the two cuts. A DOT cut of 10.5% that occured 20+ years ago led to a bridge collapse yesterday. Thanx for the cause and effect. Any evidence to suggest that the 10.5% was going to be spent on that bridge or any other bridge? or that any of the sums spent in 80s would have made a difference in 2007?

If you weren't blaming the cuts or considered yourself qualified to know, why did you mention them?

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

ORIGINAL: grumpyman

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk




Do you honestly believe that any of that money would have been spent on something like bridge maintenance? or anything useful for that matter?

mmmm? Well let's see. To pay for Reagan's first tax cut the DOT was cut by 10.5%. You know the DOT, they do things like pay for highway maintance and silly stuff like that.
And what happened in the next budget? Let's see, ah yes, cut again.
Does that mean I am blaming the problem on tax cuts. If I were honest I would have to say I am qualified enough to know. Do I honestly believe that the money would have been spent on something like bridge maintenance? The budgets would say yes. Cut enough to make a difference? Here again I am not qualified enough to know.

Interesting, I've never seen congressional notes that linked the two cuts. A DOT cut of 10.5% that occured 20+ years ago led to a bridge collapse yesterday. Thanx for the cause and effect. Any evidence to suggest that the 10.5% was going to be spent on that bridge or any other bridge? or that any of the sums spent in 80s would have made a difference in 2007?

If you weren't blaming the cuts or considered yourself qualified to know, why did you mention them?

You asked if any of the tax cut money would have gone to bridge maintenance. That is why I mentioned it. I also mentioned that I am not qualified to know if it made a difference. Revenues for roads and bridges also also come from other sources. And where exactly did I state a cause and effect? I didn't. I do suspect that money for infrastructure has been lacking. I mentioned those 2 budgets because they were the only two that that where negative, but budgets after that that did not make up for those cuts.

As Ron Burgundy would say, "agree to disagree". Happy hour is calling. Have a good weekend.

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

As Ron Burgundy would say, "agree to disagree". Happy hour is calling. Have a good weekend.

[:)]