The Troublesome Shape of America’s Bridges

Types of shoring

The United States currently has a bridge problem. This bridge problem means that many of the nation?s bridges are considered defective and unsafe. In fact, over two hundred million trips are taken daily across deficient bridges in the nation?s 102 largest metropolitan regions. To rectify this problem, many of the bridges will require extensive repairs or entire rebuilds. This presents a problem, however, as bridges are necessary to convenient travel in many areas.

The usage of temporary bridges

Temporary traffic diversion bridges are used as a type of portable bridge. It begins to solve the problem of deficient bridges. Because you can install a bridge in minutes, these temporary bridges can be used to make the necessary repairs on the permanent ones. Some cities and states may choose to rent a temporary bridge to cut costs. Cities that have multiple bridges requiring repairs or rebuilds may choose to purchase their own temporary traffic diversion bridges. Either way, this could be an important item to make progress on many of the countries deficient bridges.

Railroad bridges

Railroad bridges are bridges that are created to go over railroad tracks. These bridges allow traffic to remain consistent and steady, despite railroad schedules. They are often used in areas with frequent railroad traffic or within busy metropolitan areas. Although inconvenient, rebuilds and repairs of railroad bridges are easier to accomplish than other types of bridges. In the case of repairing railroad bridges, a temporary traffic diversion bridge can be installed or traffic can be rerouted to pass over the railroad tracks.

Advanced design of newer bridges

Many cities struggle with the choice of making repairs or completely rebuilding its city bridges. While repairs can effectively make a commuter bridge safer for a few more years, it does not entirely fix the problem of deficiency. When the decision is made to entirely replace bridges, it might cost more, take more time and work, and require more materials, but it will last longer. With new scientific designs and capabilities, today?s bridges are safer than ever and are made to last for many years.

Truss bridges are actually one of the most common types of bridges build today. Truss bridges are a popular design that uses diagonal mesh of posts above the bridge. The two most common designs are the king posts (two diagonal posts supported by single vertical post in the center) and queen posts (two diagonal posts, two vertical posts and a horizontal post that connects two vertical posts at the top). This is one of the more advanced designs of bridges and we are likely to see an increase of this design over the next couple of decades.

Nearby road construction

Because bridges are often used as a form of transportation, the nearby roads are also important. It makes sense to renovate or rebuild local roads that lead into the bridge. Using a quickly assembled bridge and a temporary traffic diversion bridge together can navigate traffic away for enough time to rebuild both the permanent bridge and accompanying roads. Also, by improving the roadways of the area, the bridge is considered to be safer for commuter travel. In 2015 alone, the public sector spent almost 90 billion U.S. dollars on highway construction. Highway and road construction put in place in the United States is projected to grow to over 99.4 billion U.S. dollars by 2020. We can only hope that a portion of this estimated projection includes the renovation of the many deficient bridges.

Bridges are an important for travel across railroads, freeways, and bodies of water. Commuters expect these railroads to be safe and free of any hazardous dangers, yet many of them are not. Many cities face difficulties when it comes to updating or replacing bridges, because they are important to current traffic needs. Temporary bridges or temporary traffic diversion bridges can solve this problem. Expected projections of highway renovation projects are increasing, with some of these portions expected to go to bridge recovery.

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