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As we hear reports that it will take 10 years (
) to replace the 1.6 mile Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, remember that China built the Danyang-Kunshan bridge and Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in 4 years each.
Danyang-Kunshan Bridge is 102 miles long, and 100 ft above the water.
Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is 16 miles and 623 ft tall, earthquake and typhoon proof, and can withstand a direct strike from a 300,000 ton cargo ship. That last point is unfortunately topical.
@mekkaokereke @lisamelton
I wonder why that ultra-long timeline? Much shorter length, yes, but the new I-35W bridge took barely over a year to build: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Saint_Anthony_Falls_Bridge
Why 10 years? Is it conditions at the site? Low priority? Just a wild early estimate?
@inthehands @mekkaokereke @lisamelton
There's a major difference between starting at breaking ground and starting at ideation.
That 1 year construction time probably involved _at least_ 5 years of planning and approvals.
This bridge has to start from scratch, in a constantly changing regulatory and stakeholder context, not from "we can rebuild it from the old blueprints".
@robotistry @inthehands @mekkaokereke @lisamelton The new 35W bridge in Minneapolis was an emergency rebuild after the old one at the same location suddenly collapsed in 2007 (eventual rebuilding had been planned, but not for another decade or more). It also is a different design - box girder rather than a continuous truss.
This is not to equate that bridge to rebuilding the one in Baltimore.
@robotistry @mekkaokereke @lisamelton
No, it didn’t. It was one year and six weeks from “old bridge unexpectedly collapsed” to “new bridge ready for traffic.” Read the link.
@inthehands @mekkaokereke @lisamelton Reading the link. New design decisions focused on bridge user stakeholders - waterway user stakeholders considerations seemed pretty fixed a priori. Shorter span, much farther from the ocean, fewer and different stakeholders with less contentious design tradeoffs and bidding rules, and able to overlap the design process with the construction process. Still not surprised this will probably take so much longer.