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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.
how this will affect the culture of both areas. I know throughout history that small gap of water served as enough of a barrier to make sicily a distinct separate culture, is this bridge an end to that? or is this already the case due to other transportation?
The english channel is more stable than the Med. See 20 Years of Seismicity in the Mediterranean - 1977 - 1997 USGS
9 *miles* long, with 3 towers, each almost twice the height of the CN Tower. Crazy!
This does not bode well for their engineers
I doubt the Italians are stupid enough to hire the BBC's photoshop monkey as their chief engineer.
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.
I saw a documentary on bridges on the History channel and they were talking about the current #1 bridge (in Kobe, Japan) and they said that it's so long, that the main towards that hold the suspension cables are not parallel. The tops point out, away from each other significantly DUE TO THE CURVATURE OF THE EARTH! Sweet.
Man, this Sicillian bridge will curve even more than that!
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.
"Finally if you had bothered to read to the end of the article, the greens are against not because it would be ugly, but simple because the money could be better spent on a clean water supply for all the local population."
I wonder if their argument is a bit backwards. The situation in Sicily might be caused by the fact that they have no good access to the mainland. With easier access both ways, it might result in changes to the island social climate such that the problem will end up being solved as a byproduct.
In some ways, "build it and they will come" might actually work. Much sillier things have happened.
I will admit that the bridge's price tag is HUGE. Such a move has a lot of risk and should be considered with all due care.