Happy Day Before Spring

[swedguy]

I saw part of a documentary about the Millau Viaduct. When I first heard about before it was being built, it was hard to picture it. It was HUGE, and push the parts out... and the height? It was just too big.

Something that was pretty cool to see was when they built the bridge, Öresundsbron (8km bridge + 4km tunnel, top level is a a 4 lane road, lower level has 2 train tracks), between Sweden and Denmark. When it was finished 1999 it was the longest of its kind, not sure if it is anymore. But the boat crane they used was enormous. It's still sitting in the harbor here.
They built the sections on land and we're not talking small sections, then they were taken out to the bridge by the boat crane and put into place. The foundation sections were also put into place by the crane.
The crane is called Svanen and can lift 8700 tonne.

http://www.leopoldreport.com/Bro0814.html
One pic of it at the bottom of the page

http://www.svt.se/malmo/oresundsbron/dokument/dokum.htm

http://www.svt.se/malmo/oresundsbron...ent/vatten.htm
One my favorite pics of the bridge
It's taken from the nude bath house hehe.

[docholly]

Rain in Vegas.. March madness has taken over the casinos. |cool| Wynn Tower, built on the old Desert Inn place, scheduled to open in April just announced they are sold out and their projections are such that they just signed a contract to build a 2nd tower.

*sigh*.. i missed OTB today..now my week will be so empty. No phone song.. No pithy commentary to yak with Tart about in PM.

Swedeeeeee.. that building looks awesome... and i had to click every link to see all the different ones..

My favorite in fairly recent history (ok 10 yrs is recent when you're an old phart) is the Kansai Airport Osaka Guess they didnt' have much left over for the urinals.

I saw a documentary on it and how they went about having to shore up the pilings and how it moves with the ocean tides so the air control has to adjust for 'movage" or whatever the technical term is.