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Ultimate bridge design - Is this possible?

6980 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Triple C
Here is an idea for some ultimate bridge design for bridging very long distances over sea. As for example stretches like:
- Spain to Marocco (some 25km)
- Sicily to Tunesia (longest stetch some 100km)
- Sardina to Tunesia (some 150-200km)
- Sardina to Corsica (some 10km)
- Corsica to Italy (longest stretch some 20-40km)
- Corsica to France (some 150km)
- Italy to Albany (some 60-80km)
- Creta to Greece (longest stretch some 50km)
- Creta to Libia (some 200-300km)
- Creta to Turkey (longest stretch some 60-75km)
- Cyprus to Turkey (some 60-75km)
- Japan to Skorea (longest stretch some 50km)
- China mainland to Hanan (some 10-20 km)
- China Dalian to Yantai accross the Yellow sea (longest stretch approx. 50 km)
-China (PRC) to Taiwan (longest stretch approx. 100km)
- Kamtjaska (russia) to Alaska (usa) (longest stretch some 40-50km)
- Sakhalin (russia) to Japan (some 25-30km)
- Sakhalin (russia) to mainland russia (some 7-10km)
- England to Northern-Ireland (some 30-40km)
- Wales to Ireland (some 80km)
- Singapore to Sumatra (longest stretch some 10km)
- Sumatra to Java (longest stretch some 10km)
- Sumatra to Borneo (longest stretch some 60-80km)
- Borneo to Philipines (longest stretch some 50km)
- India to Sri Lanka (some 25-30km, longest stretch some 3km)
- Yemen to Djibouti (gulf of Aden) (longest stretch some 20-25km)
etc. etc.

As this stretches are tens or hundreds of kilometers long no ordinary bridge design would fit, and tunnels would be too expensive or difficult to built.

But here is how it can be probably built.

Instead of pilars that are attached to the sea floor, we use a pilar construction that is mounted on a floating cilindrical construction attached to the sea floor with cables.

The basic form is that of a square (from concrete or steel) which resides above the water, and with the pilar constructed at the bottoms at each corner and attached to two cilindrical shaped (similar to a submarine shape) very large floaters sufficiently below the water level, which are connected to the bottom of the pilar construction horizontally and orthogonal to the direction of the road deck. The floaters are then attached to the sea floor with cables so as to minimize the movement in all directions, so the cables don't just stretch vertically down to the sea floor but also side ways in both directions.

Mounted on this square we then attach 4 more pilars in the vertical direction but also outwards in both directions.

When this construction is seen from the front or from the side it looks like a 'H' shape, where the '-' denotes the square formed platform to which the pilars are connected, but with the pilars going outwards in the top and bottom directions, as viewed from both the front and side. So, more or less like a 'V' mounted on a '/\' shape, but then still with the '-' part, but smaller as in the 'H'.

The road deck is not attached directly to the pilars as in normal bridge design, but is hanging on cables attached to the top of the pilars. The cable as mounted at the deck is attached to dampers that can stretch in and out as needed to keep the deck stable from small movements of the floating pilar construction.

The road deck construction itself is made from strong and lightweigh material which can accomodate for stresses in the road deck (torsion, pressure and stretching), for instance in the form of 3 parallel tubes some 10m in length interconnected into a frame. The cable and dampers are attached to that frame. On top of the construction is the actual road deck providing room for 2 or 3 traffic lanes for each direction and possibly also 2 or more rail tracks.

Now most part of the bridge can be designed in this fashion. Just that for the part where large ships need to be able to pass some wider and higher bridge construction is needed. This is done in the same fashion, except we use bigger pillar construction. The original pillar construction is lengthened in the direction of the road deck making room for two extra vertical pillars larger in size, and with all dimensions scaled up so that the width between bridges and the height of the road deck above water level fits even the largest ships.
Let's suppose that this would need a width of let's say 500 m and a height above water level of 75m. This needs to be configured for the high tide situation, as the bridge itself in fact does not rise with rising water levels as it is connected to the sea floor.

As the bridge is very long (tens or hundreds of km) we would perhaps need several of such ship crossing sections on the bridge.

Would this kind of construction be possible to built?

Extra: in places where there are sufficient sea streams, below the floating pillars turbines could be mounted for delivering electricity.
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I'd guess bridge design would be open to new ideas.

It would help to have some diagrams to illustrate the idea.

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I am not sure if I visualize the concept correctly, but you are basically talking about a floating bridge, and those have been built and are in operation in several parts of the world. They are rare, but already out there.

The configuration you propose would have serious stability issues that would have to be addressed.

A floating bridge with turbines for generating electricity was proposed for the Chacao strait.

Many times, in bridge construction, it is not about what is technically feasible but what is the most economic solution
Alot of these bridges will never happen. Nobody in Spain or Italy wants a bridge to Morrocco or Albania.
They have enough problems as it is...

But sure, it's interesting out of a design point of view.
Now there we're speaking nonsense, why not thinkin about a bridge to the moon?:bash:
You mean a Space elevator?
I am not sure if I visualize the concept correctly, but you are basically talking about a floating bridge, and those have been built and are in operation in several parts of the world. They are rare, but already out there.

The configuration you propose would have serious stability issues that would have to be addressed.

A floating bridge with turbines for generating electricity was proposed for the Chacao strait.

Many times, in bridge construction, it is not about what is technically feasible but what is the most economic solution
It's not exactly floating, it's more stable then a floating bridge.
It uses floating elements to provide upwards force, but it is firmly connected to the ground.

Even so, it will have more mobility then bridges built on pillars from the bottom up.

To avoid that the road deck itself would move too much there need to be damping devices that correct for the movements of the construction itself. So the road deck itself is not rigidly connected to the pillars, but the road deck can sway to compensate for the motion of the pillars themself, and in that way can keep their exact position independend of the motion of the pillars.
Alot of these bridges will never happen. Nobody in Spain or Italy wants a bridge to Morrocco or Albania.
They have enough problems as it is...

But sure, it's interesting out of a design point of view.
I just gave examples.

But there are many places where some connection is needed and wanted, but where the distance is simply to large to span with bridges or tunnels, and then this kind of technique might be used.

Examples include: Japan - S Korea.

The advantage is that the costs of the bridge does not rise with the distance it needs to bridge (that is, not more as linear cost rising), and there is in fact no upper limit to the distance it can bridge.
I'd guess bridge design would be open to new ideas.

It would help to have some diagrams to illustrate the idea.

.
I'm sorry I am no good in making sketches.

But to any viewer above water level it would look just like a suspension bridge (or almost), just that below the water level, the pillars ain't connected all the way to the ground but stand on large floating tanks (cylindrical shaped, with cones on either end) that are connected with cables to the sea/ocean floor.

The only difference with normal suspension bridge is that the connection between the road deck and the suspension cables uses a damping system that allows the road deck to move independend of the motion of the pillars, just to compensate for the motion of the pillars themselves, in other words, to allow the road deck itself to stay exactly in the position they are supposed to be.
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