Bridges

This wee brings us to Thailand

(View in Google Maps)

This is the new (opened in 2006) Dipangkorn Rasmijoti Bridge, a.k.a the Mega Bridge.  It carries the Industrial Ring Road across the Chao Phraya River, and connects Bangkok with the Samut Prakan Province.

Last week, we visited the host city of this year’s Summer Olympics.  So, this week, we’ll visit the host for the 2012 Games – London.

This would be the iconic Tower Bridge, carrying the A100 across the Thames River immediately southeast of the Tower of London.    It’s a drawbridge, and was opened in 1894.

Traffic using the bridge is also limited to a 20 mph speed limit, and an 18 ton weight limit, with both restrictions strictly enforced via sensors and cameras with license-plate recognition technology.  Orwell would be proud, I’m sure.

This week brings us to Dhaka, Bangladesh

One of the few prominent highway features in Dhaka is the Babu Bazar Bridge, which spans the Buriganga River.  It’s one of two bridges spanning the river — rather remarkable considering the metropolitan area is home to roughly seven million people.

This week takes us to the bi-continental metropolis of Istanbul:

(View in Google Maps)

The Bosphorus Bridge is the first of two bridges to span the Bosphorus, separating Europe from Asia.  It’s a 4954 foot-long suspension bridge completed in 1973, and it has since been superceded by the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge as the “through traffic” route between the European and Asian sides of the city.

A couple of blogs I follow have mentioned that the May issue of Popular Mechanics includes a feature called, “10 Pieces of U.S. Infrastructure We Must Fix Now”. I’ve seen the feature mentioned in the context of Atlanta’s water shortage, but the entire list is actually rather interesting to me (not surprising, given my interests):

• Circle Interchange, Chicago
   
• Brooklyn Bridge Approaches, New York City
   
• Industrial Canal Locks, New Orleans
  (Ships can wait 36 hours for clearance to transit, creating a drag on the efficiency of the Port of New Orleans. PM doesn’t mention that survivors of the Lower Ninth Ward would like to see the canal itself fixed by being filled in….)
   
• Atlanta’s water system
  (PM estimates 18% of the daily water consumption in ATL is the result of leaky water mains)
   
• Alaskan Way viaduct, Seattle
   
• Lake Okeechobee dike, Florida
   
• Dover Bridge, Bonner County, Idaho
  (Northern Idaho bridge for US95, scores 2 out of a possible 100 in sufficiency rating.)
   
• Wolf Creek Dam, Kentucky
  (Kentucky River dam deemed in enough danger of collapse that TVA reduced the water level behind it, to reduce flood risk to downstream towns, including Nashville.)
   
• Sacramento River levees, California
  (Remind me not to write flood cover on the Arco Arena, or on SMF.)
   
• O’Hare

None of those are surprises, and many of them are slated for repairs in the next few years, assuming funding remains available. However, it’s nice to be reminded every once in a while of some neglected priorities.

(How much money have Presidential candidates raised to date for this election cycle?)

This week takes us to China:

This is the Yangpu Bridge (杨浦大桥), an 8.4 kilometer bridge which provides a link between Pudong and the Yangpu District of Shanghai.   It is one part of the Inner Ring Road of Shanghai’s freeway system, and it’s center span of just over 600 meters renders it the fourth-largest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

Back to Japan this week:

This is the Tempozan Interchange in Osaka, an interesting collection of ramps where Routes 4 and 5 (Wangan Route) and 16 (Osaka-ko Route) of the Hanshin Expressway (阪神高速道路) meet next to the Tempozan Harbor Village, home to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan and the Tempozan Harbor Village Ferris Wheel, the world’s largest before the opening of the Millennium Eye in London.

Even though Hong Kong has been returned to China for over a decade now, the autonomy granted to the Hong Kong S.A.R. means that the border between mainland China and the former British Colony still functions like an international border.   Consider, for example the Lok Ma Chau ( 落馬洲) border crossing:

To the right is the road crossing, used primarily by trucks, coming in the form of a high bridge across the Shenzhen River.  The north end of a bridge features an impressive ramp structure that not only helps achieve the necessary elevation, but also facilitates the switchover of traffic from left-hand-drive in Hong Kong to right-hand-drive in mainland China.

To the left is a double-decked pedestrian bridge, housing immigration checks for pedestrians crossing the river between train stations on both sides of the river.

We’ll stay in India for a second week.  Mumbai this time:

This is the Vashi Bridge, a six-lane bridge connecting the satellite city of Navi Mumbai with Mumbai proper.   Just to the north, you can see the predecessor span, which is apparently still open albeit only to two-wheeled traffic.

For a nice picture from the Vashi Bridge, I recommend checking out this post on Haricool’s Livejournal.

We go to Brazil this week:

This is a section of SP-160, the Rodovia dos Imigrantes (”Immigrants Highway”), a toll expressway connecting São Paulo with the Atlantic coastal cities of São Vicente and Praia Grande, descending 800 meters in elevation down the Serra do Mar in the process.

Due to the volume of beach-bound traffic, the route can be converted into a one-way expressway (with traffic seeking to go the other way relegated to the older Rodovia Anchieta).

The particular stretch shown above is one of the crossover points of the two carriageways, as they snake around the escarpment, making use of 44 viaducts, 7 bridges, and 11 tunnels for the 59km route.