Monday, April 8, 2013

G is for Gibralter


Several engineers have been asked to come up with an ingenious design for a bridge or tunnel across the Strait of Gibraltar joining the continents of Europe and Africa. These projects are being looked into by the Spanish and Moroccan governments with some assistance from the EU. 

In 2004 Eugene Tsui, an architect from the United States published his design for the Strait of Gibraltar Floating Bridge, the longest bridge in the world. 

This incredible design features an original floating and submerging concept which incorporates a 3 mile wide floating island at the centre. There are 24 lanes for vehicle traffic and 4 lanes for trucks and buses along with 2 high speed trains. In addition 5 pedestrian lanes are elevated above the traffic lanes, which can also be used by cyclists. 

Tsui has designed this unique concept with both the environment and tourism in mind and has provided the largest wind and water power farm in the world which can generate enough electricity to power the Spanish province of Cadiz and Morocco. 

As a tourist attraction, Tsui’s Gibraltar bridge could increase the current annual visitors to both Spain and Morocco by 2600%, an amazing increase of 2.3 million to 60 million tourists per year! The estimated costs, as at 2004, to build such a bridge is US$ 10 billion. As such an ambitious design, could this become the 8th Wonder of the World? Reference

13 comments:

  1. The one in the picture looks more like riding a roller coaster than driving on a bridge.

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  2. That would pretty cool, I have to say.

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  3. Wow, what an ambitious project! But I'd sure love to visit it!

    Tina @ Life is Good
    Co-host, April 2013 A-Z Challenge Blog
    @TinaLifeisGood, #atozchallenge

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  4. Wow to that bridge! It is quite spectacular. Let's hope the bolts are solid and not like the ones the engineers used out here on our new bridge.

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  5. Any idea how long that bridge would be? The one in the picture looks like a bunch of swinging bridges. I'd be petrified to cross on something like that.


    Cynthia (The sock Zone)

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  6. Looks like an interesting concept, but the up-and-down nature of it seems destined for traffic accidents. All it takes is one guy with bad breaks, and suddenly and whole line of cars is smashing down one of those inclines.

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  7. That would be one heck of a bridge.

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  8. That would really be something. One of my favourite bridges is the one from Lisbon in Portugal, the Vasco da Gama bridge, it is very, very long. Nothing like this concept though.


    JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE

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  9. Hi Steve .. the length will be one thing, the surges in water levels, and the movement in the earth's crust will make this an interesting build.

    I wait to see - cheers Hilary

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  10. I have lived near Cadiz and have been to Gibraltar many times this is most interesting.

    Yvonne.

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  11. 24 lanes for traffic - I simply can't get my imagination around that. I suppose if we could build the Panama and Suez Canals all those years ago it's doable, I am truly amazed by the skills and visions of some people

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  12. What an amazing idea! The number of lanes, the pedestrian lanes, the rail slots, just wow!

    #atozchallenge, Kristen's blog: kristenhead.blogspot.com

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