Niigata, Japan's Bridges: Highway 8 Bridge across the Ugawa

August 2007 (37.3605 Degrees, 138.549 Degrees) Ugawa Bridge

This is a two-span concrete I girder bridge on a pier wall and seat-type abutments. Although bridges closer to the mouth of the Ugawa River sustained damage due to lateral spreading, this bridge (about 1.2 km upstream) had just a little bit of embankment settlement that was quickly repaired.  Just north of the bridge were several manholes raised above a roadway’s surface and a nearby stonecutter’s shop had toppled statuary suggesting that ground motion greater than 0.10g and liquefaction were still a problem. 

Niigata, Japan's Bridges: Highway 8 Bridge across the Ugawa by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Great Britain: Sainsbury Bridges (3)

A look back at Sainsbury's Pedestrian Bridge.  A plastic roof was mounted to the concrete barrier rails. It must be pleasant to seek shelter under the barrel-shaped surface on a rainy day. However, I'm not sure if I like bridges made out of short-lived materials. Also, the concrete pedestal attached to the much older stone pier gives the bridge a temporary appearance.

Great Britain: Sainsbury's Bridges (3) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Great Britain: Sainsbury Bridges (2)

A look under the two Sainsbury's Bridges.

The bridge on the left looks like the Midland Road Bridge with it's big bottom chords supporting tapered floor beams. This is more evidence that the two bridges used to sit side by side.

Instead of big steel rocker bearings that support the bridge on the left, the bridge on the right sits directly on a reinforced concrete pedestal. Also one of the girders on the pedestrian bridge looks like it was struck by a passing vessel. This seems strange since the  bridge on the left wasn't hit.

Great Britain: Sainsbury's Bridges (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.