San Francisco’s Bay Bridge Gets 5,300-Ton Steel Span Delivery from China

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/sf-bay-bridge-gets-5-300-ton-delivery-from-china.html

The final segments for San Francisco Bay’s new suspension bridge are being loaded onto a ship in Shanghai today, moving California’s largest current public works project a step closer to completion.

The four steel modules, weighing a combined 5,300 tons, will then make a 22-day journey across the Pacific Ocean, before being joined with 24 other sections already in place. Together, they will help form the world’s longest single-tower, self- anchored suspension bridge, stretching 2,047 feet (624 meters).

The structure is part of the Bay’s new $6.4 billion East Span, due to open in 2013, which also includes a 1.2-mile viaduct. Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co.’s work making the 525-foot tower at the heart of the suspension bridge and the 28 steel deck sections for it, highlights how Chinese engineers are expanding overseas and winning contracts for more complicated projects.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind-project,” William Ibbs, professor of construction management at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a telephone interview. “Seeing something of this magnitude go up is astounding.”


video report here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/72198490/




***a thing that should righteously piss. you. off.

[yella_dawg]

1. We used to be proud of things we built.

Now we cheer the things we buy.

I wonder why our economic problems are so tenacious.

[xchrom]

6. It's very sad. Nt

[Broderick]

10. That's pretty deep

Good post. True.

[BOG PERSON]

2. it looks like the chinese *literally* have a bridge to sell us!

ha-ha-ha!

[Brickbat]

3. Shameful.

[CleanGreenFuture]

4. So they've graduated from plying us with plastic pumpkins to

building our infrastructure for us?

That's just great!

[originalpckelly]

5. Hey, that way you can drive across it to get to the job you no longer have at the steel plant.

Cool.

[WinkyDink]

7. Well, now that Bethlehem Steel is a Sands Casino........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sands_Casino_Resort_Bethlehem

[theaocp]

8. This. is. an. abomination.

What's next? Being surrogates for our kids, too?

[Starry Messenger]

9. It's tragic.

[Marrah_G]

11. Very sad......

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. If you import steel, you also import cleaner air.

Just saying.

[Romulox]

15. That's the most illogical thing I've read on this board of late.

Makes zero sense. Not "just" saying. :hi:

[Dreamer Tatum]

16. I guess that acid rain from making steel was just a myth, huh?

:eyes:

[Romulox]

18. The "atmosphere" is a GLOBAL thing. Pollutants released in China travel throughout the world.

In particular, burning coal in China releases "particulates" that travel all over the world (including the West Coast of the USA, and beyond.) Moreover, global climate change is not a regional phenomena.

:eyes: backatcha. :hi:

[Dreamer Tatum]

20. Then you wouldn't be opposed to a steel factory opening next door to you

Gotcha.

The shapes people will twist themselves into to despair American manufacturing. We should all take mass transit, UNLESS of course there's a giant steel contract to be had. We love clean air, UNLESS of course there's a steel contract to be had. Wow.

[Romulox]

22. Inanity piled upon inanity = a very "sensible" post.

I take the above word salad as your concession. :silly:

[Dreamer Tatum]

26. I took your emoticons as fundamental unseriousness. nt

[Romulox]

29. When addressing the likes of you? ¡ Absolutamente! nt

[WinkyDink]

32. No, i wouldn't. But then, I DID LIVE NEXT DOOR TO ONE. LITERALLY.

Bethlehem Steel. Google it.

[arcane1]

13. "thanks to their heavy investments in research and development"

I wonder what that's like... :shrug:

[Romulox]

14. I could NEVER drive my Hyundai over that thing!

:shrug:

[LeftinOH]

17. Are there any steel mills remaining in this country? Seriously.

[kestrel91316]

19. I wouldn't want to drive over it. I wouldn't trust it to be made to specifications.

[xchrom]

21. the chinese company who built it has no expertise in building bridges --

isn't that interesting?

[amborin]

30. it's such a crucial motorway in the Bay area, what a travesty!

[kestrel91316]

35. Remind me to stay off that bridge if I ever go there.

[LibertyLover]

23. I wonder how long it is before this steel is found to be sub-standard

and hazardous due to manufacturing "irregularities" and short-cuts?

[ej510]

24. I am glad to see my Fast Trak dollars are building

a foreign bridge I use everyday. :sarcasm:

[xchrom]

31. ain't it a kick in the pants? nt

[21st Century FDR]

25. I expect that bridge to do a full Pawlenty in the next earthquake

Why would it be any more dependable than any of the other Chinese crap at WalMart?

Completely fucking disgusting. :puke:

[Snoutport]

27. pathetic

[theophilus]

28. I hope it's better than their drywall. If it starts stinking, drive quickly to the other side. n/t

[trackfan]

33. A bridge too far...

http://martinigod.com/

"While the infrastructure in this country is in bad need of repair, wouldn't part of the point of rebuilding it be to create some jobs here, and not make the damn thing in China?"

[xchrom]

34. seemed obvious back when they made the deal.

seems crystal clear now when we have serious job suckage.