Eideard

Along with its massive high-speed rail network, China has officially surpassed the United States in yet another piece of transportation infrastructure: the world’s longest sea bridge.

The new bridge spans Jiaozhou Bay, on the southern coast of China’s Shandong Peninsula in northeastern China. At 26.4 miles long, it beats Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain Causeway — the previous world-record holder — by at least 2 miles, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Chinese workers toiled at marathon pace to build the bridge in four years, starting at each side and meeting in the middle. The structure has 5,200 pillars and cost at least $2.3 billion, according to Chinese state-run media.

The Guinness officials say the bridge is earthquake- and typhoon-proof, and designed to withstand the impact of a 300,000-ton vessel. It links the port city of Qingdao to the island of Huangdao, cutting drive time from 40 to 20 minutes, according to the state-run China Daily.

Click through to the article. There’s a short video with a helicopter view of the bridge.

Bridges are generally exposed to the elements, meaning they generally get a nice dose of sunlight often coupled with some fairly strong crosswinds. For these reasons this “Solar Wind” bridge design would seem to make a lot of sense. The proposed bridge would harness solar energy through a grid of solar cells embedded in the road surface, while wind turbines integrated into the spaces between the bridge’s pillars would be used to generate electricity from the crosswinds.

The brainchild of Italian designers Francesco Colarossi, Giovanna Saracino and Luisa Saracino, the Solar Wind concept was designed for the Solar Park Works – Solar Highway competition that asked entrants to modernize sections of a decommissioned elevated highway stretching between Bagnera and Scilla in Italy.

The road surface would replace traditional asphalt with 20 km (12.4 miles) of “solar roadways” consisting of a dense grid of solar cells coated with a transparent and durable plastic coating providing 11.2 million kWh per year. The designers say this system, combined with the 26 wind turbines integrated underneath the bridge generating 36 million kWh per year, would provide enough electricity to power approximately 15,000 homes…

The Solar Wind entry was awarded second prize in the Solar Park Works – Solar Highway competition and the design clearly has merit. The integration of wind turbines into the underside of high altitude bridge exposed to constant strong winds seems like a particularly good idea – given that this could be achieved from a structural engineering point of view…

Most folks who live in hilly or mountainous areas know about canyon winds. Whatever may be prevailing breezes become something a heck of a lot stronger when funneled through canyons and narrow valleys.

Seems to me we should not only consider including wind generating features into new construction, there should be a fair amount of retrofitting possible.

A British man murdered his wife after constant arguments about her ability to play bridge, a court heard Tuesday. Stephen Green, 52, is accused of stabbing his wife Carole to death in January, after fights about her card playing.

Carole Green’s body was discovered at the couple’s home on January 18 this year — three days after the prosecution claims she was killed by her husband.

She suffered about 100 injuries to her upper body and neck.

Green, who denies murder, was found by police in the bath with cuts to his wrist and appeared “unfazed” when arrested, Preston Crown Court heard.

Fellow members at Lytham Bridge Club in Lancashire, Diana and Peter Sizer told the court the defendant’s attitude at club meetings had changed noticeably in the previous three years, the Press Association reported. Green had started drinking heavily which led to “vicious” criticism of his wife’s prowess at bridge and a deterioration in his own game, Diana Sizer told the court.

The trial continues.

I forwarded this to one of the bridge experts in my extended family. I’m confident he’ll use the tale to disturb a few of his opponents.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Since the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge two years ago, state transportation officials have awarded more than $55 million in contracts to URS Corp. and Progressive Contractors Inc. — the two companies it now holds largely responsible for the disaster.

Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) records show that it gave the two companies contracts for projects across the state in those two years, including work to predesign other bridges. At least one of the companies played a small part in building the new I-35W bridge.

URS’ most recent contract with MnDOT is for a traffic simulation project in the Twin Cities metro area. The agency authorized the $99,892 contract July 23 — just a few days before the state filed suit against URS, a San Francisco-based company that for four years was MnDOT’s main consultant concerning the bridge. The lawsuit cites URS as negligent and accuses it of violating basic engineering standards.

MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said Friday that the agency would not comment on other contracts it has awarded to URS because of its lawsuit against the company regarding the I-35W bridge. “We do not comment on matters under litigation,” he said.

But it’s OK to give away taxpayers’ dollars – without comment.

In its lawsuit, the state accused URS of failing to adequately inspect and analyze the 40-year-old steel-truss bridge and of failing to detect that the bridge’s gusset plates were underdesigned and inadequate. It collapsed Aug. 1, 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145 others.

In May, the state filed a legal claim against Progressive Contractors, saying that the construction company whose workers were on the bridge the day it fell did not tell MnDOT the details of its plan to place heavy equipment and materials on the bridge.

Bureaucrats so rigid and unable to change they’d rather give money away to incompetents than find a new way to do business.

The chief emerges from his tent to face the leaden morning light. It had been a rare, rough night in his homeless Brigadoon: a boozy brawl, the wielding of a knife taped to a stick. But the community handled it, he says with pride, his day’s first cigar already aglow.

By community he means 80 or so people living in tents on a spit of state land beside the dusky Providence River: Camp Runamuck, no certain address, downtown Providence.

Because the two men in the fight had violated the community’s written compact, they were escorted off the camp, away from the protection of an abandoned overpass. One was told we’ll discuss this in the morning; the other was voted off the island, his knife tossed into the river, his tent taken down.

The chief flicks his spent cigar into that same river. There is talk of rain tonight.

Behind him, the camp stirs. Other tent cities have sprung up recently around the country, but Rhode Island officials have never seen anything like this. A tea kettle sings…

The chief, John Freitas, is 55, with a gray beard touched by tobacco rust. He did prison time decades ago, worked for years as a factory supervisor, then became homeless for all the familiar, complicated reasons…

He and Ms. Kalil set up camp with another couple in early April. Word of it spread from the shelters to Kennedy Plaza downtown, where homeless people share the same empty Tim Hortons cup to pose as customers worthy of visiting that doughnut chain’s restroom. The camp became 10 people, then 15, then 25. No children allowed.

“I was always considered the leader, the chief,” Mr. Freitas says. “I was the one consulted about ‘Where should I put my tent?’ ”…

The community also established a five-member leadership council and a compact that read in part: “No one person shall be greater than the will of the whole.”

RTFA. All I’ve put in place is a portion of how it begins.

Communal survival is generally more successful than solo – at least for greater numbers of people. In a time like ours, with growing numbers of homeless, the collective solutions hold more promise. This is just one of those tales – about human beings – in case you forgot.

A man threatening to commit suicide by jumping from a Chinese bridge was approached by a passer-by who shoved him over the edge.

Lai Jiansheng, 66, said he was fed up with the desperate man’s “selfish activity” which caused huge traffic jams in Guangzhou, southern China.

Chen Fuchao fell 26ft onto an air cushion and is recovering in hospital, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Xinhua said Mr Lai was “taken away by police”, but gave no further details.

Traffic around the bridge was stopped for five hours while officers tried to coax Mr Chen to safety.

Retired soldier Mr Lai at first volunteered to try to talk Mr Chen down but was turned away by police, Xinhua said.

Mr Lai is said to have then broken through the police cordon, climbed to where Mr Chen sat, greeted him with a handshake – and then pushed him off the edge.

Mr. Lai saluted the crowd after Chen fell onto the emergency air cushion.

Daylife/Getty Images

President Obama, directly addressing a majority Muslim country for the first time in his presidency, said Monday that the United States “would never be at war with Islam.”

In a wide-ranging speech before the Turkish Parliament in the capital, Ankara, Mr. Obama extended his campaign of outreach to the Muslim world, painting himself as a man who understands it and would seek to build a bridge between Islam and the West.

“America’s relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not just be based on opposition to Al Qaeda,” he said. “We seek broad engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect.”

He drew applause when he said, “The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam…”

But Mr. Obama, who has become increasingly confident and sure-footed as his one-week maiden overseas trip is drawing to a close, is seeking to use Turkey as an example of the type of relationship that can be struck between the United States and a Muslim country. Turkey is a secular Muslim democracy that is pivotal to American foreign policy goals from Iraq to Afghanistan to Middle East peace.

Mr. Obama also threw his weight firmly behind Turkey’s accession to the European Union, an issue that has split Europe, with France and Germany lobbying against it. “Let me be clear: the United States strongly supports Turkey’s bid to become a member of the European Union,” Mr. Obama said. “We speak not as members of the E.U., but as close friends of Turkey and Europe.”

The differences between Obama and all preceding modern American presidents are striking. If you think outside the ever-diminishing box of nationalism, you recognize the contribution made on behalf of the educated portion of America and the larger portion of the American population that rejects mean-spirited, fearful ideology.

I have critical differences with the Obama platform, most especially in the Middle East, most often over what I perceive as his opportunism towards America’s religious communities. So what? Those differences can be debated on the relevant issues. Having a president who respects science and realpolitik, who considers other nations to be capable of profound thought and leadership is such a welcome change from the fools who defame the meaning of the words, “American Conservative”.

Golden Gate Bridge directors have voted decisively to try to stop people from jumping to their deaths from the landmark bridge by hanging nets along the sides of the span.

The Board of Directors voted 14-to-1 to install the stainless-steel net system, which would be placed 20 feet below the deck, and would collapse around anyone who jumped into it, making it difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to leap to their death. The lone “no” vote came from Director James Eddie of Mendocino County, who said his constituents did not consider a barrier necessary.

An audience of about 50 people, including psychiatrists, suicide prevention experts and family members of people who had jumped to their deaths from the bridge, applauded the decision. Some had fought for decades for a suicide barrier…

But it probably will be years before the 3.4 miles of netting are installed, said Mary Currie, bridge district spokeswoman. Before it can start construction, the bridge district must complete more studies, including one on the effects of the net on birds, and come up with a funding plan. Then it would need to complete engineering and design work, and hire a contractor.

“Our next big challenge is to come up with the money,” she said.

Let ‘em jump. Send the bill for recovery to their insurance beneficiary.

AP Photo by Ding Xiaochun

The Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze Road Bridge, the world’s largest cable-stayed bridge, has formally opened in east China’s Jiangsu Province after five years of construction.

The bridge, linking the two prosperous cities of Nantong and Suzhou, runs 32.4 kilometers, with 8,146 meters spanning the Yangtze, China’s longest waterway. It has three lanes each way…

It has the world’s longest span of 1,088 meters, usurping the previous record holder, the Tatara Bridge in Japan, which has a main span of 890 meters…

Its steel and concrete towers, the tallest bridge towers in the world, stand at 300.4 meters.

How soon will it be before we learn the name of the first numbnut to commit suicide by jumping?