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Worlds Widest Bridge Opens Today Dec 01, 2012

Started by AE_Collector, December 02, 2012, 03:57:54 AM

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AE_Collector

Today the worlds widest bridge (10 lanes) and second longest in North America opened after four years of construction. It is within site of my house. After listening to pile driving and other construction noise every night for the last four years our reward is the new $3 toll to cross the bridge :(

Of course like all new bridges everywhere, it is a "cable stay" bridge. In other media I have heard them say that it is the worlds widest cable stay bridge so that could be a more accurate claim. It is going into the Guinness Book of Records.

The old Port Mann bridge was originally four lanes wide when it opened in 1964 but it was expanded to five lanes about ten years ago when the sidewalks were moved to the outside giving room for one more lane on the main bridge deck.

The old bridge surely was the inspiration for the term "The Car Strangled Spanner" but at least we should be able to look forward to much quicker crossings for quite a few years. The Port Mann Bridge is a part of the main freeway "Trans Canada Highway 1" heading towards Vancouver where it crosses the Fraser River  between Surrey and Coquitlam BC.

Terry

1st: Widest bridge in the world

2nd: Longest bridge in North America

29th: Longest bridge in the world

158 metres: Height of the two pylon towers

42 metres: Navigational clearance above high water level

10: Lanes — final two to be completed after portions of the old bridge are removed

288: Cables

45 kilometres: Length of cables, if stretched

251: Piles

1,158: Precast segments used in the approach spans

25,000 tonnes: Asphalt used for the bridge deck

157,000 cubic metres: Concrete used

28,000 tonnes: Rebar used

13,000 tonnes: Structural steel used.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Port+Mann+Bridge+numbers/7639455/story.html#ixzz2Dsrq2YPG

AE_Collector

Well, 19 days after it opened.......it's closed. More than a few unhappy rush hour commuters today including me. And I wasn't even trying to get across it.

We had a second day of fairly heavy snowfall in Greater Vancouver today. The combination of heavy wet snow caused it to build up on the bridges cables and eventually it began to fall off. Amazingly some of the falling ice broke windshields and injured two people.

Eventually once most people had finally made it home over other area bridges, they reopened the new bridge again. I suspect this wont be the end of the story though!

Terry

cihensley@aol.com


AE_Collector

#3
The bridge crosses the Fraser River which cuts the Greater Vancouver area in half as it flows from the east to the Pacific Ocean at the west. It splits into the North and the South Arms flowing around Richmond to the Ocean. I drew a red line on this map to indicate the Trans Canada freeway crosses the Fraser River. Vancouver is a traffic nightmare due to bridges and tunnels. I guess there are many cities with this problem. If it isn't rivers causing problems it is Burrard Inlet from the Pacific Ocean cutting in to Port Moody and separating North and West Vancouver from Vancouver proper.

Terry

cihensley@aol.com

Terry:

Even though I have been there several times, I did not realize the extent to which Vancouver is sectioned by water.

Chuck

LarryInMichigan

#5
It looks like the engineers made a serious oversight in the design:

LINK DEAD NOW

video link

Larry