Bridges from every seat
I am a bridge engineer, and cable-supported bridges are my specialty. For twenty-five years I have worked on suspension, cable-stayed, extradosed and arch bridges. Not one slice of them, but the whole arc: original design and construction-stage analysis, erection engineering and temporary works, main-cable installation and geometry control, stay-cable force tuning, and the inspection and maintenance of cables once the bridge is open.
What makes my view a little unusual is that I have done this from every seat at the table. I have sat at the design desk running the models. I have stood on the deck during erection, adjusting cable forces against survey readings at dawn. I have supervised the contractors who build bridges and signed off their method statements. Today I work on the owner's side, carrying signature bridges and marine crossings from master plan through procurement and design review. Design, construction, supervision, client: each seat taught me what the others could not see, and that is the view behind everything on this site.
Bridges that taught me
The main cable of the Çanakkale 1915 Bridge, the longest suspension span in the world. Main cable and geometry control on the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, a record hybrid suspension and cable-stayed crossing of the Bosphorus. The cable scope of Ain Dubai, the largest observation wheel ever built. Original design, stage and seismic analysis of the Busan Port Bridge. A long line of Korean cable-stayed, extradosed, balanced-cantilever and arch bridges, among them Machang, Donggang, Taein, Shincheon, Samsan and Gunjang. And a 37 km railway viaduct in the Philippines, seen from the supervisor's chair.
Why TheBridgeEng.com exists
Bridge engineering is mostly learned by standing next to someone who already knows: on site, at the desk, in the hours around a problem. Not everyone gets that chance, and the people who need it most, young engineers, site engineers, and everyone who builds, inspects, estimates or manages bridges, are usually the busiest.
This site is my attempt to put some of that next-to-someone knowledge where anyone can reach it, quickly and for free:
- Fast answers. Twenty-five calculators that give you the number and show the working, and a Bridge Design tool that turns a few inputs into a preliminary design with an AASHTO LRFD check of the girder, the pier and the foundation.
- A feel for bridges. The Bridge Book, construction-method animations, a bridge-building game, an atlas of bridges and a database of failures. The fastest way to understand a bridge is to see how it is built and how it can go wrong.
- A place to ask. The Forum needs no login. Ask about a calculator, a detail on site, or anything bridge-related.
If you leave this site a little faster at your work, or a little more curious about bridges, it has done its job.
Say hello
I read every message. Questions about cable bridges are especially welcome, and so are corrections: if a number on this site looks wrong to you, tell me.