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China's new bridge

Comments

  • #2
    dubhthach
    Registered Users Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭dubhthach


    Zebra3 wrote: »
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/china-opens-world-longest-sea-bridge

    Saw this on the news yesterday.

    Impressive to say the least.

    Indeed though I wouldn't want to be on it during a Typhoon ;)

    There are some very impressive mega-projects going on in China. I've head some commentators compare it to the infrastructure that was built during the New Deal in america. Given that they are sitting on $1 Trillion dollars it's not surprising. They also recently open high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai (Bullet train) cuts the journey time to 4 and half hours.


  • #3
    CerebralCortex
    Registered Users Posts: 3,809 ✭✭✭CerebralCortex


    dubhthach wrote: »
    Indeed though I wouldn't want to be on it during a Typhoon ;)

    There are some very impressive mega-projects going on in China. I've head some commentators compare it to the infrastructure that was built during the New Deal in america. Given that they are sitting on $1 Trillion dollars it's not surprising. They also recently open high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai (Bullet train) cuts the journey time to 4 and half hours.

    Considering this, hypothetically speaking could we build a bridge between Bangor and Stranraer? A kind of UK/EU/Irish venture. Dublin/Belfast to Glasgow by train or car.


  • #4
    dubhthach
    Registered Users Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭dubhthach


    CerebralCortex wrote: »
    Considering this, hypothetically speaking could we build a bridge between Bangor and Stranraer? A kind of UK/EU/Irish venture. Dublin/Belfast to Glasgow by train or car.

    Well that bridge is all in the Pearl River Delta, I can't imagine it gets hugely deep. In comparison right in middle of the North Channel you have the "Beaufort Dyke" which according to wiki is "50 km long, 3.5 km wide and 200-300 metres deep"

    You can see it on the relief map here:

    IrishSeaReliefMap.jpg

    To put that 3.5km in context the longest suspension bridge span is currently at 1,991metres of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan.


  • #5
    richardjjd
    Registered Users Posts: 524 ✭✭✭richardjjd


    CerebralCortex wrote: »
    Dublin/Belfast to Glasgow by train or car.
    Never mind Glasgow, with the channel tunnel, we could drive to Vladivostok.


  • #6
    purplepanda
    Registered Users Posts: 1,048 ✭✭✭purplepanda


    It was a grand feat of engineering to move New Ross on that map across to the east coast!! :rolleyes: Maybe they're connecting it all up with the Selskar Tunnel!! :D


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  • #7
    D'Peoples Voice
    Registered Users Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭D'Peoples Voice


    dubhthach wrote: »
    Well that bridge is all in the Pearl River Delta, I can't imagine it gets hugely deep. In comparison right in middle of the North Channel you have the "Beaufort Dyke" which according to wiki is "50 km long, 3.5 km wide and 200-300 metres deep"

    To put that 3.5km in context the longest suspension bridge span is currently at 1,991metres of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan.

    well if we could build a motorway across the Bog of Doom..........


  • #8
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,523 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    The Beaufort Dyke is also full of UK nuclear waste (allegedly).


  • #9
    G_R
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 5,022 Mod ✭✭✭✭G_R


    China, which seems to complete mammoth infrastructure projects on a routine basis, has claimed another world-beater with the opening of the longest sea bridge.

    The 26-mileJiaozhou Bay crossing connects the bustling port city of Qingdao, south-east of Beijing, to the industrial district of Huangdao.

    The eight-lane, 35-metre-wide bridge opened to traffic on Thursday morning, China's Xinhua news agency said. Built over a four-year period the project cost about £1.4bn and uses 5,000 pillars. It shortens the driving route between the two locations by about 20 miles.

    Somewhat inevitably, the bridge takes the world record from another Chinese sea crossing, the 22.5-mile Hangzhou Bay bridge, which opened in 2008, connecting the cities of Jiaxing and Ningbo, south of Shanghai. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, at almost 24 miles, is slightly longer but crosses an inland waterway rather than open sea.

    China is constructing an even more ambitious bridge. Work began in December 2009 on a Y-shaped structure linking Guangdong province in southern China to Hong Kong and Macau. Building is expected to be finished in 2015, and the bridge is expected to cover about 31 miles, although only about 22 miles will span the sea.

    Am I the only one who finds this to be a bit ridiculous? Building a bridge that long to save 15 mins journey time?

    Don't get me wrong, I love this kind of thing, and I await the Megastructures documentary, but whoa, surely there is a better place they could build a massive bridge? My Chinese geography isn't the best, so I can't suggest anywhere, but I'm sure there is somewhere.


  • #10
    dubhthach
    Registered Users Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭dubhthach


    Grand_Rajnah wrote: »
    Am I the only one who finds this to be a bit ridiculous? Building a bridge that long to save 15 mins journey time?

    Don't get me wrong, I love this kind of thing, and I await the Megastructures documentary, but whoa, surely there is a better place they could build a massive bridge? My Chinese geography isn't the best, so I can't suggest anywhere, but I'm sure there is somewhere.

    I reckon you can see parts of the bridge here: (Google need to update the whole bay). http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Qingdao,+china&hl=en&ll=36.166012,120.298576&spn=0.087308,0.156898&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.664131,80.332031&t=h&z=13

    It looks like it hugs the coast very closely, more then likely the existing routes were fairly jammed with traffic, also given how close it is to shore what's the odds the chinese will later reclaim the land out to the bridge.


  • #11
    killbillvol2
    Registered Users Posts: 5,178 ✭✭✭killbillvol2


    The Chinese love their headline projects. They are, of course, unhindered by planning laws or any concern for the environment.

    I was in a fishing village last year where the residents had been given 6 months notice to move to the mountainside nearby to allow the construction of a highway to ferry tourists to that side of the lake. Nobody seemed to take into account that there wouldn't be any point going there if all you could see was a highway! The other issue for the unfortunate residents, apart from their livelihood, was that they buried their dead on the mountainside and obviously didn't want to live on a burial ground.

    This bridge project is a massive publicity grabber to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the communist party. Of course it created thousands of jobs and was built very cheaply by our standards. In the end though, it will slightly ease traffic in the area and be great to look at.


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  • #12
    silverharp
    Registered Users Posts: 17,838 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    CerebralCortex wrote: »
    Considering this, hypothetically speaking could we build a bridge between Bangor and Stranraer? A kind of UK/EU/Irish venture. Dublin/Belfast to Glasgow by train or car.

    a bit of a waste though, most traffic is between Dublin and the South of England. It would still be better to take a ferry

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