Sicilian Suspension Bridge to Go Ahead

SpanningTheGap writes "According to the BBC, Italy plans on building a suspension bridge connecting the Italian mainland with the island of Sicily. The bridge will be five kilometers long and its central span will be over three kilometers long, easily breaking the old record length for a suspension bridge. The artist's conception image of the monster is a sight to see. Another article with more info can be found here." There's a website with assorted technical info about the design.

Comments

Re:Chunnel

[Fantanicity]

The english channel is more stable than the Med. See 20 Years of Seismicity in the Mediterranean - 1977 - 1997 USGS

Re:Chunnel

[bunyip]

Not sure, it's not like the water is too deep:

http://www.ifm.uni-hamburg.de/~wwwrs/publication s/ rubino/fig8.html

Maybe it's the rock. The Chunnel was bored through chalk.

Also, the Chunnel is a train tunnel, with cars and trucks put in large wagons to take them through. Cars and trucks driving through a long tunnel are too fire prone (remember the tunnel under Mt. Blanc?).

Any civil engineers out there have a good explanation

Re:Chunnel

[arri]

Simple: it is a seismic area (terrible earthquake in Messina in 1901 inclusive of tsunami) with the fault ine running right between Sicily and the mainland. The currents are particularly strong which make a "suspended tunnel" (one of the original designs) also impossible. Apparently the only design with a sporting chance to work is a suspension bridge.

Same way they make any cable

[wiredog]

Take a bunch of strands and wrap them together.

Longest span, not longest bridge

[Mr.Phil]

This new bridge will be the longest span between towers, but not the longest suspension bridge. Mackinac Bridge, connecting Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, is five-miles long, including approaches, and is the world's longest suspension bridge between cable anchorages.

http://www.mackinacbridge.org/

I've been over it on days that where so windy there was a police escort across and you had to turn the car wheel at the expansion joints to stay in your lane. This was shortly after the lady in the Yugo blew over the side of the bridge in a wind storm.

Re:Not a great plan

[Yokaze]

Not that I'm qualified enough to challenge your statement, but what kind of bridges does one build then?

And what drove those incompetent blokes to built the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (1,280m span), or the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo.
Not to mention the largest one Akashi Kaikyo (1,990m span) which is mentioned in the submission (follow the link "old record").

Re:Sicilian Suspension Bridge...

[athmanb]

Notice that it's a cable 1.5 meters across and one kilometer long. So effectively the same ratio as a 1 meter long and 1.5 mm wide rope. It will bend just well.

Re:Lucifer's Hammer

[ocbwilg]

think in this situation, a 'chunnel' or something like it would make more sense, not just because it would be more durable,

Except during times of high seismic activity, for which the area is known. The articles also stated that Sicily drifts northwards about 3 feet per century, and shifting that is likely much easier for a suspension bridge to cope with than a tunnel.

but because a big bridge like this will disrupt shipping lanes during construction,

If there are no pylons in the water as planned, disruption during construction should be minimal.

and possibly dangerous to ships after it is completed.

The articles stated that the bridge will be some 230+ feet above sea level which allows enough clearance for US aircraft carriers. That should leave plenty of room for cargo ships.

Re:Country vs Island

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm, that "small island" already is part of Italy. Just not the mainland. Plus, I question calling a 10,000 sq mile island "small".

That post was ment to be a stimulus

[teraun]

Not exacly, sir. I have lived in a town where we have seen mafia only on tv, just like you did.
But newspapers and tv remembered us that the southern town were I used to live was an oasis in a rotten area (southern Italy). Mafia most likely does not have reason and incentives to expand in the northern side. There is indeed suspicion about a southern Italian when we move to the north. And I do understand them( better safe than sorry;).

Mafia has three names, just like crap has several synonims: Mafia in Sicily,Camorra in Campania, N'drangheta in Calabria, and Sacra(whatever...) Corona Unita in Puglia.Many shops of Sicily, Calabria, Campania and Puglia have to pay a "tax" to the gangs (although, I believe it only happens in the large cities). Mafia does exist and harm anyone it touches.For example, mafia 's associates always get to win local public constructions bids(of Sicily, Calabria, Campania and Puglia). It is a disease to the free market, and to the prosperity of the south.Some southern Italians(the most ignorant ones) blame the government of the unemployment and the crime we have; but the real ones to blame are those losers with a gun.

I am from southern Italy and I know how it feels when one ASSOCIATES Italy to mafia.By the way, most of the mafia is though to be in southern Italy.At least , that's what I have understood from the news. And , actually, south of Italy is where mafia homicides occur(I approve when they kill each other, that'd be fine :). I take the previous post as a stimulus. As long as people talk this bad of Italy, I believe, there will be a stimulus to do better.

Mavachagher, terun. ;-)

all large suspension bridges do this

[AdamBa]

This fact was trumpeted for the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, the Humber Bridge, the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge, etc, etc. I guess it is cool but not unique for a bridge over 4000 feet central span.

- adam

modern bridge deck design

[AdamBa]

Most modern suspension bridges have gone back to the thin deck instead of the heavy truss, but they make the deck aerodynamic in cross-section to handle the wind. The East Belt bridge in Denmark is like this. Only the Japanese (in some cases, like Akashi-Kaikyo, but not some of the other large ones they have built recently) and the Americans (theoretically, since they have stopped building long-span suspension bridges) still prefer the deep truss.

You would think the narrow deck would look nicer but I like the truss actually. Plus I have not seen a recent bridge (since the Verrazano-Narrows in 1964) that really looked nice, due to ugly tower design or other issues. And don't get me started on cable-stayed, if there has been an elegant looking one built, I have missed it. The Pont de Normandie is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. Where is Christo when you need him.

- adam