New Tacoma Narrows bridge

[Sounder]

Here is a major bridge project on going in Washington State outside of Tacoma. It will be completed in 2008 & provide a second span crossing the Tacoma Narrows linking the Kitsap Peninsula with the east side of Puget Sound.

http://www.earthmech.com/images/tacoma%20narrows%201.jpg

WSDOT - SR 16 - New Tacoma Narrows Bridge (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/)

Project Facts:

• New concrete towers 510 feet high (8,000 cubic yards of concrete each).
• Towers and caissons designed for second deck (either road or light rail) to be added in the future.
• New bridge deck is 5,400 feet in total length, 2,800 in the main span.
• New bridge will carry three 12' traffic lanes, two 10' shoulders, and a 10' bicycle/pedestrian path separated by a barrier.

[Chad]

Thank god......The old one is too crowded already, It took me 2 and a half hour to go to Port Orchard from Tacoma...

[L'Tar D'Lorez]

wow, the dual-bridge thing looks surprisingly sleek..... What one amy think to be redundant is in fact...... very graceful.

I've been over the tocoma narrows bridge too, it definatly needs a freind. What they oughtta do is tie the two to gether in some way and boast it as the worlds widest suspension bridge!




hehe, vidios of the origionnal tocoma narrows bridge are funny....

[Sounder]

Yeah, the traffic there is awful. Roughly 300,000 people live on the Kitsap/Key Peninsula. The bridge is going to be a toll bridge which I think has slowed growth there as people aren't interested in paying tolls.

[asian_horizon]

yeah look spectacular. two bridges crossing over. wow.

[L'Tar D'Lorez]

mabey they could put a metro or pedestrian walkway between the two bridges if the do girdie them together.......



mabey the thing'd fall over if they did, that'd be bad. we shall see.

[Agent Orange]

Looks good, but they're not identical, that would bug me if I had to see them every day. I'm just one of these symmetry freaks.

[TallBox]

hehe we learnt about the tacoma narrows bridge in physics.... the movement of people and traffic on the original bridge in 1941 (i think) set the bridge into oscillation. haha

[Agent Orange]

hehe we learnt about the tacoma narrows bridge in physics.... the movement of people and traffic on the original bridge in 1941 (i think) set the bridge into oscillation. haha

Hey, its not funny. A dog died in its owner's car when the bridge collapsed.

And actually I believe it was the wind and the frequency of it that led to the failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

[MSPtoMKE]

Yes, and the first one was built with absolutely no cross bracing beneath it, big mistake. The Seattle area has been unlucky with bridges in the past. Part of the I-90 floating bridge sunk, and didnt something happen to the hood canal bridge too???

[kub86]

I doubt the second bridge will relieve any traffic. Currently, there's only 2 lanes in each direction over the narrows. I travel across the bridge often because I live around there and the backups are MASSIVE. Adding one more lane per direction won't do anything drastic during peak hours (the problem they think the new bridge will solve). But then again, nothing will. If anything, the new bridge will encourage more development in Gig harbor making it another suburbia = more traffic across the new bridge = traffic just as bad as they are currently = now what do you do?

[empersouf]

Wow, amazing bridge.

[Dubai-Lover]

i've heard about the old tacoma narrows bridge, which broke down a couple of years ago due to instability

2 different bridges? hmm, why? but looks good.

[clive330]

hehe we learnt about the tacoma narrows bridge in physics.... the movement of people and traffic on the original bridge in 1941 (i think) set the bridge into oscillation. haha

Actually I believe it was a strong wind that powered the oscillation - just happened to be gusting at a similar frequency as the bridge's. No damping, bracing = goodbye. I was suprised how flexible it was and how long it lasted under those huge oscillations.

[1st Division Marine]

when's this bridge getting built is there any contruction photo's yet of this bridge.

[czm3]

i've heard about the old tacoma narrows bridge, which broke down a couple of years ago due to instability

2 different bridges? hmm, why? but looks good.

A couple of years ago? Actually it was about 40. These bridges may not be nessessary for current demands, but these are bridges that will grow with the region. Better than looking for a new solution 30 years from now.

My $0.02

[sequoias]

when's this bridge getting built is there any contruction photo's yet of this bridge.

It already started construction since Nov 2002. It should be completed in 2007 or 2008, I don't remember. They have the 2 bridge towers going up now, and will start with the cables and all that later after the towers are topped out.

The project is worth $849 million US dollars.

[Azn_chi_boi]

Nice looking bridge, a different color would suit the bridge better.

[Sounder]

Recent pics:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/thisweek/snapshots/20050610_1.jpg

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/snapshots/20050520/20050520_1.jpg

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/photolibrary/newbridge/tower/enlarged/2007tw_32.jpg

[Timoth12]

Interesting one. Reminds me a bit of Golden Gate bridge in San Fransisco.

[Sounder]

Recent pics:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/snapshots/20050805/20050805_4.jpg

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/thisweek/snapshots/20050813_1.jpg

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/thisweek/snapshots/20050813_3.jpg

[FM 2258]

Looks interesting but why does it look like they're making the clearance lower on the new bridge?

[tritown]

I hope you don't mind the huge picture; I'm a little too lazy to resize.
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/7642/dscf14995ni.th.jpg (http://img335.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf14995ni.jpg)

I put it in a thumbnail so it is less bothersome. This is taken from 5-mile drive (the 3 mile marker if I remember) from Point Defiance State Park.

(Taken Friday, September 2)

[Chad]

damn, surprising progress and design is representing the old one so well with same "x-bracings" pattern.

[Sounder]

Recent pics:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/thisweek/snapshots/20051007_3.jpg

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/thisweek/snapshots/20051007_2.jpg

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/thisweek/snapshots/20051007_1.jpg

[asohn]

Similar to the Delaware Memorial Bridge between New Jersey and Delaware.

The first four-lane span opened in 1951. The second span was built in 1968.

http://www.ocean.udel.edu/cms/jsharp/images/bridge4.jpg

http://www.aaroads.com/delaware/delaware200/i-295_nb_exit_003b_07.jpg

http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/newJersey/DelawareMemorialBridge.jpg

[Sounder]

Here is an article from today's Seattle Times:

Wire by wire, Tacoma Narrows bridge is built (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002562232_narrows15m.html)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2005/10/14/2002562030.jpg

[spongeg]

wow - where aboputs is that? i am not that familiar with the tacoma area

[pwalker]

This bridge opened for traffic this morning. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:


Thousands turn out for opening day of new Tacoma Narrows bridge
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TACOMA -- Thousands turned out for opening day festivities at the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge on Sunday as state transportation crews geared up to open the milelong span to traffic.




See photos from Sunday's festivities
The party started in the morning with a 5K run and walk across the bridge that drew more than 10,000 participants.

Then state Treasurer Mike Murphy and House Speaker Frank Chopp paid the first toll and crossed the bridge in a 1923 Lincoln Touring Car, the first to cross the original bridges built in 1940 and 1950.

The deck later opened to pedestrians who were invited to stroll across before it was to open to traffic early Monday morning.

Officials were estimating that 50,000 showed up to check out the new bridge, based on the number of people who rode nearly five dozen buses that were shuttling people from three different locations, said Melanie Coon, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation.


Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
The new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, as seen from the top of the south tower of the old bridge.
At 5,400 feet from end to end, the new bridge -- built parallel and to the south of the 1950 span -- is the longest suspension bridge built in the United States since the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in New York in 1964.

The original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, dubbed Galloping Gertie, was the world's third-longest suspension bridge when it opened on July 1, 1940.

It collapsed in a windstorm about four months later, becoming famous as "the most dramatic failure in bridge engineering history," the Department of Transportation said on its Web site.

The span to the north of the new bridge opened on Oct. 14, 1950. At 5,979 feet in length, it is the fifth-longest suspension bridge in the United States. It was designed to carry 60,000 vehicles a day, but handles more than 90,000 a day on average, the Transportation Department said.

Tolls on the new bridge -- which connects Tacoma with the Kitsap Peninsula to the west -- will be $3 for eastbound motorists who stop at toll booths, or $1.75 for those driving in lanes reserved for an electronic payment system.

Officials say more than 100,000 "Good to Go!" toll transponders have been issued to motorists. That's more than twice the number of people who were initially expected to sign up for electronic payment accounts, said Greg Selstead, the state Department of Transportation's director of tolling operations.

An international team of engineers and craftsmen worked on the $700 million bridge.

Most of the steel and all the cable-spinning equipment came from Japan. The deck was built in South Korea and hauled to Tacoma on Dutch ships. And the 19,000 miles of wire inside the main cables was manufactured in South Korea, China and England.

By the time contracts for the new bridge were being negotiated in 2000, the American steel industry had imploded, while steel-making -- and the expertise needed to build suspension bridges -- had moved to Asia.

Of the 10 longest-span suspension bridges built in the world since 1996, eight are in China or Japan.

The world's longest is Japan's $5 billion Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, which has a main span of 6,529 feet. That's more than twice the length of the Tacoma Narrow's 2,800-foot main span -- the section between the two 510-foot-tall towers.

While most of the engineering and design for the new bridge was handled in the United States by New York-based Parson's Transportation Group, the detailed engineering and fieldwork and all the spinning and cable-wrapping equipment used on the bridge were provided by NSKB, a joint venture between the Japanese construction giants Nippon Steel Corp. and Kawada Industries Inc.

All told, bridge builders logged more than 3.5 million hours working on the bridge, with only three injuries serious enough to keep workers off the job the following day.

[hoosier]

Any photos of the completed bridge?

[jkjkjk]

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1148/829349869_a759f79d66_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1023/821575714_36659404c1_b.jpg

[ChrisZwolle]

A nice 2x3 lanes and shoulders. Very good!

[hoosier]

Thanks, that is a kickass bridge.

[Gaeus]

Nice! I like the color light green. It fits to the environment of the surroundings. :)

[FM 2258]

Nice bridge but looks kinda expensive just to add one lane in each direction.

[pwalker]

Nice bridge but looks kinda expensive just to add one lane in each direction.

I agree, but welcome to the WSDOT (Washington State Dept.of transporation) idea of under-building projects. (actually, the WSDOT is an arm of State government, so the State is really to blame...although they will blame the voters...) This has been going on for years. Example: They are now trying to replace a Seattle to Bellevue floating bridge that is terribly congested with a similar structure that would only add a carpool lane! The anti-car, anti-growth politics here still exist, and nobody seems to understand what the "future" will bring. It really is a lack of future planning based on current political benefit. It, in my opinion, is short-sided, but the reality in the region.