Bridges and Tunnels - Photos and Discussion

[Mill Bay]

I've already taking a look at the concept design for the new bridge. The city council had already voted on the replacement design before all the referendums and surveys were finished... they were just waiting for the final results and cost analysis to make their decisions, I'd imagine.

The good news is, that I actually do like the new bridge design. At least they are keeping it as a straightforward bascule bridge with no futuristic, physics defying techno elements ;D. Also, it looks like it will have a decent above-grade support structure that will actually give people something to look at when they see and use the bridge.

The uncertainty principle crops up when I don't know for sure what is happening with the railway bridge. I would imagine it is not part of the replacement project, as that bridge probably isn't owned by the city. I could be wrong, but the elevation drawings show only traffic and bike lanes on the new bridge. Also, can't figure out why they keep building bridges with an odd number of lanes. Somehow it seems like a designed in bottleneck to do that.

www.johnsonstreetbridge.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/cam43.jpg
www.johnsonstreetbridge.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/cam21.jpg

[fargowolf]

You know... I don't really like that design. If it was somewhere in Europe, it would probably fit in quite nicely, but, it just doesn't seem right for Victoria. I would aim for something more standard/traditional. But that's just me.

As for the rail bridge, CP owns that, and as a result, would have 9most likely) a say in the design of the new bridge.

[Nick]

Council has decided to save approximately $30 million by not including the rail element in the new bridge, whether it was a refurbished or new design. If the refurbishment had been chosen the rail portion would have been made into a multi-use trail. The E&N station will be relocated to the the Esquimalt side.

[lmtengs]

That new design looks TACKY. That's all I can say.

[Mill Bay]

Aug 13, 2010 18:19:44 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

That new design looks TACKY. That's all I can say.

You who like the Kicking Horse Pass bridge... Don't like such a new and innovative design? I'll try not to appear surprised.

What's not to like here. It's modern, innovative, efficient and up to standards. It was surely designed by a computer as opposed to a creative, intelligent human mind and you dare to dislike it?

As I said before: you can dip into the same fund that is providing for triple-decker ferries and new berths on the major routes for the 80-plus million to rehabilitate the original bridge.

I find this hard to believe... build flat, featureless lifeless and unnatural looking bridges everywhere, and no one notices, but try to build something that actually maintains a shape and it looks tacky, ha-ha.

All I can say for the crowd that thinks this new chosen design is not traditional, ask yourselves how it got to be that way. Not one of the designs proposed could have been considered, ahem, traditional.... That doesn't even factor into the thought process anymore and current design trends are utterly blind to it. How would we have gotten a traditional looking truss design to Victoria city council anyway? I know that it's still possible to build truss bridges, but no one seems to consider them as a design anymore. The only thing I would have liked to see was some design congruency, and with this particular one that they've chosen, that's about as close as we are ever going to get with modern schools of thought guiding the design.

[lmtengs]

Aug 14, 2010 10:02:05 GMT -8 Mill Bay said:

Aug 13, 2010 18:19:44 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

That new design looks TACKY. That's all I can say.

You who like the Kicking Horse Pass bridge... Don't like such a new and innovative design? I'll try not to appear surprised.

What's not to like here. It's modern, innovative, efficient and up to standards. It was surely designed by a computer as opposed to a creative, intelligent human mind and you dare to dislike it?

I don't like the Kicking Horse Pass Bridge for it's design, I like it for the way it fits into it's location. If you stand underneath and look up to the top of it, it utterly towers above you and you are made to wonder: "How the heck does that thing not fall over??"

I don't know why I like the Kicking Horse Pass Bridge, but I can assure you, it's the only one of those concrete feature-frees that I've ever liked.

I don't like the shape of the new Johnston Street bridge, or as it'll be called, the "Grey Bridge". I think the way it's shaped looks tacky, and the shiny metal colour they show on the artists' renditions. Build me a traditional arch bridge, like the Lougheed Highway-over-Coquitlam River bridge (yes the old one) or the Highway One right near the Mountain Highway exit bridge, and I'll be elated.

[Kahloke]

Some bridges in Oregon and California:

Yaquina Bay Bridge at Newport, Oregon. This iconic bridge was designed by Conde McCullough, who was responsible for the design of most of Oregon's coastal bridges. This particular bridge opened in 1936.


Alsea Bay Bridge at Waldport, Oregon. The first bridge at this location was also designed by McCullough, but it was replaced with this new one in 1991.


Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge: dedicated to its designer, this bridge spans Coos Bay. Opened in 1936, it was Oregon's longest bridge at that time.


The Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge at Gold Beach, Oregon. It's also known as the Rogue River Bridge, presumably because it crosses said river. Opened in 1932, this bridge is another fine example of Conde McCullough's work.


The Dalles Bridge spans the Columbia River connecting Washington and Oregon at that location. The steel truss cantilever bridge opened in 1953.





The upper bridge in the photo is the Foresthill bridge over the American River, just outside Auburn, CA. At 730ft above the riverbed, the Foresthill Bridge is the tallest bridge in California. It was built in 1971. The lower bridge also spans the American River. It is the old Foresthill road.


The Bixby Creek Bridge near Big Sur, CA. This is another iconic bridge, featured many times in TV ads and movies over the years. Completed in 1932, it is a signature feature along California's Central Coast and Hwy 1. On a personal note, my grandmother's brother was a construction worker on this bridge when it was built, so we have a bit of a family connection to it.







Rio Vista Bridge - this lift bridge is part of the Hwy 12 corridor through the Delta which connects Lodi, CA along the I-5 Corridor to the communities of Rio Vista, Fairfield, Napa, and Sonoma. The Rio Vista Bridge crosses the Sacramento River.

[Mike C]

Here's a couple shots fresh off the 5000 of the Alexandra Br, in the Fraser Canyon.


Old Bridge


New Bridge, Highway 1

[lmtengs]

[Low Light Mike]

Deception Pass bridge on October 26, 2010.
- photo taken from Fidalgo Island, before we crossed-over to Whidbey.


(apparently the State ordered 3 bridges for this pass, with an option to build a forth. Too bad that the extra bridges are useless for anywhere else...)

[Coastal Drought]

It is official. The Johnson Street Bridge will be replaced. Here is the article: www.timescolonist.com/news/Victoria+voters+bridge/3861275/story.html

[fargowolf]

Nov 20, 2010 23:08:23 GMT -8 Coastal Drought said:

It is official. The Johnson Street Bridge will be replaced. Here is the article: www.timescolonist.com/news/Victoria+voters+bridge/3861275/story.html

And after residents voted *(petitioned) to save it.

[Ferryman]

It had been a while since I've exercised my Nikon D60. So I brought it out when I was staying in Victoria for 5 days. Here's some photos of the about to be demolished famous "Blue Bridge" of Victoria at night.

[lmtengs]

Here's a video taken from in my car, driving over the Blue Bridge in Victoria.

As we all know, the Johnston Street Bridge is slated for demolition in the near future.

[lmtengs]

When I was in Victoria last Sunday, I took the liberty to take a zillion photos of the Johnston Street Bridge, mostly for my own personal archive. Here are a few of those photos, featuring different parts of the bridge. My apologies if some seem a bit repetitive.



















From the path to Songhees:






Taken later that day, from near the Coho's Ferry berth:

[lmtengs]

Here are some bridge pictures from my trip down the Oregon Coast, from which I returned yesterday.

A neat bridge along I-5 in Washington:


The bridge from Cathlamet to Puget Island:




The bridge at Astoria, taken at dusk:


The bridge over the entrance to 'the World's smallest harbor' at Depoe Bay:




The bridge into Newport:



I love the graceful arches of this bridge.









A smaller bridge along the 101:


The bridge at Heceta Bay:

It reminds me of one of those old Roman aqueducts.

The drawbridge at Florence, backed by the setting sun:


and lit by night:

[Kahloke]

Here is a cool little bridge in the Sacramento River Delta. It's the Isleton Draw Bridge.

[Low Light Mike]

Johnson St. "Blue Bridge" in Victoria.
- we saw it from a habour ferry pickle-boat on September 1st, 2011.

View from the inner harbour side



Views from the upper harbour side:


The rail bridge part stays open, and is no longer in use (and likely never will be again, on this or a future bridge):



The end of the rail line....






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VIDEO of passing underneath the bridge
www.facebook.com/v/10150293579853647

[Low Light Mike]

Some more Victoria area bridges, as seen from our Gorge-tour on the harbour ferry.
- September 1, 2011.

Bay St. bridge


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Selkirk rail trestle, now used as part of the Galloping Goose trail

[lmtengs]

I'm pretty sure that this isn't just our favorite bridges anymore being posted here. Time for a name-change to something along the lines of 'Bridges and Tunnels - Photos and Discussion'? Opens the thread's focus a little more too.

Anyway, here are some photos taken on my cell phone from earlier today. I drove to Spuzzum and a tad further to Alexandra Suspension Bridge (which actually is one of my favorite bridges).
I would have brought the D60, but she's been having fits lately, so I'm going to have to bring her in for a check-up or hurry up the purchase of that D7000...


The 'new' Alexandra Bridge, completed in 1964.


The 1926 bridge, along the route of the Cariboo Road and the 1926 to 1964 alignment of the Trans Canada Highway.


Looking down through the bridge's metal deck at the Fraser churning angrily below. Every now and again I could hear a louder than normal boiling noise from the water.


Taken from a cliff similar to the one on the opposite shore.


From below.


Anyone with a shoe size smaller than a kids 12 might have their feet fall through the grates...


And a last view, looking West (south on the old highway route designation).

If you want to visit the Alexandra Suspension Bridge, I recommend you do it sooner rather than later. The bridge foundations are literally crumbling, and on the East shore, the deck isn't even attached to the tower. There's a fun little gap in the deck that you have to make sure not to trip on too. The government should really work harder on preserving BC's history.

[Low Light Mike]

Thanks for the Alexandra bridge update. I enjoy viewing that old bridge.

(title changed too, good suggestion)

[lmtengs]

Let's just relocate this little guy here for the sake of organization.

Sept 14, 2011 14:26:35 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

There's nowhere else to put it, so here's a video of one of Norway's undersea tunnels. Excuse the voices and camera handling. Note, right around the midpoint of the video, the elevation below sea level. The grades down and up in the tunnel, though they may not seem so, are very steep. Think of 6th Street in New Westminster for comparison. Or the ramps to the gallery decks on the C's. They're fairly similar too.


This was one of the mid-length tunnels.
What do you think of one of these crossing the Georgia Strait?

[Nickfro]

From the Vancouver Sun. . .

Photos: The 11 coolest bridges in the world

[Kahloke]

I scanned in some more older photos this past weekend from a trip I took to England and Scotland in 2001, my first time there.

The first two bridges are in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, a small town up near the Scottish border on the east coast.

The bridge on the right in this photo is Berwick Bridge, also known as The Old Bridge. Built out of stone between 1611 and 1624, it served as Berwick's main road bridge for a long time. It is still used today, although it has been restricted to one-way traffic and is no longer the main road bridge.


The Royal Border Bridge opened in 1850 under Queen Victoria's reign. It was built as a rail bridge and is still used for that purpose today.


The Forth Bridge spans the Firth of Forth between Queensferry and North Queensferry, essentially linking Edinburgh with the north of Scotland. Like the Royal Border Bridge, this one is also a rail bridge. Opened in 1890, it is still one of the largest cantilever bridges in the world.


This foot bridge spans the River Avon in Stratford-Upon-Avon

[Kahloke]

I was in Spokane this past weekend. Here are a few Spokane bridges:

Monroe Street Bridge


Post Street Bridge and Spokane Falls


Pedestrian suspension bridge at Riverfront Park - crosses Spokane River




Washington Street Bridge at Riverfront Park