No Bridge too far for the Bridge Designers

They are in every city, town and village the world over; built to cross over small streams or great expanses of water; basic roads and railway lines or multi-laned carriageways; tiny ravines or gaping canyons, the bridge is an absolute necessity and their design over time, have become in many cases, engineering masterpieces.

Bridge design is essentially dependent upon its actual purpose; fundamentally, the required load which it will have to withstand. It is the key factor when initial plans are drawn up as to how the bridge will be constructed, in shape and with what specific materials. Tension and compression have to be accounted for to evenly distribute the forces which the structure will encounter. There are all manner of potential users of the bridge, be that motor vehicles or trains -- sometimes both; pipelines, pedestrians and more and more common in their development are the commercial bridges which have built onto them restaurants, bars and shops. Click here for more info.

The basic characterization of the bridge can take on many representations. They could be described as cantilever or continuous; stone or metal; through or deck, the list is many and varied. The main forms in the bridge design will involve one of either: beams, arches, trusses, or suspensions. Although the more complex modern designs favor the side-spar design, but even this is largely based on the basic principles of the suspension bridge, which is over two hundred years old.

The beam bridge is usually supported by vertical pillars at either end of the structure, with the beam - or in more contemporary designs steel girders -- supporting the weight of its traffic and the construction itself. These tend to only span limited distances and the older versions would probably have been built using wood.

An arch bridge is made with one or more hinges, taking into account the stresses it is expected to bear. These are much stronger than the beam type and are often used at locations where supporting piers are very difficult to construct. Cantilever bridges are very similar in their appearance to the arch version, but the important difference is that they support their load through diagonal bracing, as opposed to vertical. Visit us here.

Another consideration in bridge design is whether it will be fixed or moveable. The vast majority of bridges are fixed, built to stay put for whatever lifespan is deemed applicable. Temporary bridges are designed so that they can be moved if necessary, by light or medium machinery and are usually used as a stop gap, during repairs or as a short term fix. There are however, other bridges that are constructed specifically to be moveable.

Naturally the architects involved in the bridge design will prefer their creation to be visually appealing, but that of course is not always possible, or indeed appropriate. The bridge first and foremost must have functionality and anything thereafter has to be regarded as a bonus. However, across the globe there are some wonderful examples of how designers have got it spot on and the results are nothing short of spectacular.