I was going to make some joke about not wanting to be the dude driving over the bridge for the load test - entirely presuming there was some more sophisticated way to load test new bridges . . . but no:
They do this to measure load vs deflection and check agreement with models, not to get anywhere close to yield. It's a low end proof check, drive trucks on, measure deflections, drive trucks off, confirm reset of deflection;
The margin on actual load to a permanent set is likely 2-3x what those trucks are carrying. And the margin to actual failure from just this quasi static loading and no external environmental loads (wind)... even more so.
Unless there was some catastrophic fuck up in construction process or calculations, this is completely safe.
Very impressive. The economic angle is a bit confusing. Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China, without much international tourism or trade.
Wikipedia indicates it is meant to increase tourism, but even China's most attractive regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall, Chengdu, Chongqing) are under-visited. I can't imagine that Guizhou will be on foreign tourist's agenda for at least a couple of decades. I think this is an attempt by the local govt. to get more internal tourism. It might work out. We'll see.
> reduces travel time between the two sides of the canyon from two hours to two minutes.
Think of it this way.
Every 2 hours round trip to 2 minutes saves imported fossil. For trucking/freight that's like ~$80 of diesel both ways.
PRC construction workers, though less abundant is cheaper than it ever will be. So best time to build infra is always now, especially one that reduces long tail imports.
Every piece of infra that cuts time (apart from cutting X time) is basically frontloading (domestic) steel and concrete to reduce future oil imports (and emissions). Rough napkin math, 2B rmb construction cossts = ~3m barrels of oil, 2b kms of travel. Shaving off 2hrs (guestimate ~150km) and it pays itself off in imported fuel metric between ~10m trips (for freight , more for passenger). Guizhou has 40m people, if a fraction goes to see the bridge, do some tourist shit (induced demand) it would go a long way to basically subsidize a bridge that cut logistics times and wear on tear for the region.
Could not part of its poverty problem be caused by the restrictive travel time and rough terrain that this bridge avoids and could help them become prosperous? If you only build prosperous things for prosperous areas, poorer areas will never get better and could even get worse in comparison as competing becomes even harder.
Its like if you put a dimensional portal across a Great Lake, even if neither side of the portal is currently not very prosperous, the fact that hours of ferry turned into minutes of travel would be a huge boon to both sides and gather attention, investments, and economic benefits that could turn both sides into prosperous cities.
Having spent a lot of time in Japan, construction there was a way to provide money to poor regions. You build some big project and pay people good wages and encourage growth of local industry. Not saying it's good or bad but the economics may be secondary to these goals
The Wikipedia page currently also states that it reduces the gorge crossing time from 70 minutes to one minute. So it definitely serves a purpose - whether we each judge that to be worth it is another question.
> Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China, without much international tourism or trade.
Could be part of a bit of internal “not leaving anyone behind” propaganda, rather than a concern for national or international trade.
Less cynically, it could be a genuine attempt to help pull the area up economically. Lack of good transport infrastructure can be a major factor among those that hold areas back in that regard.
Apart from what others already mentioned (build and improvements will follow): construction is the main tool the CCP uses in padding economic numbers. And that sectors has not been doing well for a while now, with all the unused ghost metropoles sitting idle. These projects are there not just to improve the local region, but also to keep the construction sector afloat.
.....Are you why we don't have infrastructure in the US?
If you want to uplift a region, you invest into it.
A bridge that cuts travel time by 2 hours increases domestic trade, it can even increase domestic and international tourism long term.
Say what you want but the only region in the world I went that felt like looking forward is Asia, even borderline decaying countries like Japan are clearly looking forward, you can see it from what and how they build, and not just in major centers.
It's hilariously depressing to imagine how impossible it would be to build something like that in the US. It's not only the fact that it's an engineering feat—it's also the fact that it was built in such a human-centric way. The cafe at the top, the light show with the water. These things are all superfluous, but make these projects exciting and add novelty which makes these areas just fun places to be. The U.S., in it's current form, could never build any infrastructure projects in such a human-centric way, because, well, we apparently have an inability to build anything at all.
Seriously, when's the last time we built something like this. The only initiative I can even think of is California high speed rail and that project just so happens to be a testament to the absolute antithesis of what I'm proclaiming.
I really don't understand all the hyperbole around this bridge. It's a suspension bridge, so the relevant bits are at the pylons, which just happen to be on either side of a huge canyon. It clocks in at #14 on Wikipedia's list of longest suspension bridges, with a main span that is 603 meters shorter (2023 meters vs 1420) than the longest.
More interestingly, to me at least, is the fact that 31 of the longest 50 are all in China (as are all but two of the 24 in the "under construction or planned").
> The 2,890-metre-long structure, which took more than three years to complete, reduces travel time between the two sides of the canyon from two hours to two minutes.
Pretty impressive. I feel like things in the US take a lot longer and cost a lot more. The prime example is the second avenue subway extension which has been planned since 1920. But I just searched for a few significant bridges like the Gordie Howe bridge which took about 7 years and 6.4bn Canadian (connects US and Canada). And this bridge which seems a lot more of an engineering feat took 3 years and 8 months and cost between $280 to $292 million
> I really don't understand all the hyperbole around this bridge. It's a suspension bridge, so the relevant bits are at the pylons
I understand what you're saying, but the experience is quite different for the people driving over it compared to a bridge where it isn't a 2000 foot drop.
All I'm seeing is fairly straightforward fact-based announcements. "The tallest bridge has opened - here it is." If that doesn't interest you, fine... but the reports are not hyperbole.
This project is beautiful. This is an incredible work of art. It might not be the longest, but have you ever tried to pull cable over 2,000 ft hole? Have you ever seen what it takes to actually do those columns? The work looks nice very nice design. It fits with the landscape very well. And the fact that it cost only 140 million is an incredible. For a comparison if you look up one of the bridges I did. We spent 280 million on this
We spent 280 million on this
Years ago I remember reading about an economist who stated something like, "the best way to stimulate an economy is to pay people to dig holes and then fill them in." (I wish I remember who said that.)
In modern times, that translates to paying people to build roads and bridges. Why pay people to sit on their butts and eat bon-bons when you can pay them to get something of value?
In more tangible terms, building infrastructure does elevate peoples' situations.
I feel like the metric needs to be "greatest distance of road from solid ground" or "greatest distance from linear interpolation between ground attachment points".
About 6 hours ago, I watched a video of this from a motorcycle Youtuber who crawled down a sketchy, enclosed, temporary ladder into an unfinished visitor area.
There will be a place for people to run on a track on the outside (with an above harness), bungee jumping, misting rainbow effect sprayers, and visitor's areas underneath and in the top of one of the towers.
The team of engineers who developed this are also quite young.
Well it's not the same game. Here in China we're in this phase of accomplishing big stuff to help each other and flex a bit and wow at our own development. When the British colonized America, it was exactly the same - an insane accomplishment to capture and re-develop that land into something half-working so far away. When China starts capturing and colonizing other continents, you can start being really jealous !
Now, the US is focused on other stuff like maybe having some return on their investment, or looking at its people as first-class problems rather than ants meant for a greater national goal. It's not that bad, it depends on what you focus on, I think people in the US have nice stuff to look forward to, like I don't know, a holiday in Disneyland with their kids, when Chinese people often don't see our kids for years while we're building bridges far away.
Plus you know, we don't get to vote for great politicians like in the US and are stuck instead with bureaucrats that care more about infrastructure than pleasing the people. Be proud of that, I'd love for us to have your president (yes, I'm teasing you :p)
I think the weight should be expeessed in average yearly banana haevests to keep the numbers low and comprehensible. It's going to be intuitive, I promise.
In China, recently, there was a bridge collapse of one of their tallest bridges. I hope it was an isolated incident and not a lapse in their process or principles.
Takes 3yr to replace a 50ft I beam bridge across a small river where I live, mostly because of unnecessary permitting and process. When you add up all the months here and there for every sign off from every party at each stage it adds up fast.
I'm not sure about this particular project, but while riding on their high speed trains between various cities, I witnessed a great quantity of tunnels of a variety of lengths. Some of them were very, very long.
China is doing a lot of drilling, based on what I've seen first-hand.
China's infrastructure building is beyond impressive. I always come back to this map of China's high speed rail built in 16 years (2008-2024) [1].
China is actually run by a meritocratic bureaucracy rather than the dumbest of people who do nothing more than sell pardons, run crypto scams, transfer government funds to the wealthiest of people, pander to religious hallucinations and sell out their constituents for board seats and jobs after their political career from the very billionaires that were buying them in office. And no, it's not just one party that does this although the current administration is particularly egregious.
I, too, am jealous of China's high speed railroads. However, on the whole, China has overbuilt their infrastructure, and that may not look so smart in 40-50 years when the maintenance bills start coming due.
There's some very heavy lifting you have to do to make the parties look at all close. If the Democrats had a supermajority for long enough, you would see some real change for the better, because we can actually protest Democrats to get them to do things, while the Republicans will just silence any dissent using US military against its citizens. Unfortunately a Democratic supermajority is unlikely to ever happen again the way things are going now. And this is 100% because how people voted, or didn't vote at all.
Your comment would have held true in 2022 or 2015, bolstering your argument that the incumbents cause these issues. Adding the “and no” precondescended statement to the end seems to show your own rumination toward bias.
> the dumbest of people who do nothing more than sell pardons, run crypto scams, transfer government funds to the wealthiest of people
The irony is they are doing all that on the name of “meritocracy” and their side (the wrong Right) is falling for it and cheering it with both hands :-)
> Last month, a team of engineers deployed 96 trucks to strategic points across the bridge to recreate heavy traffic conditions to ensure it would not buckle.
Part of me seeing the record and the whole artificial waterfall gave me a sense that it's not a race anymore, we already lost.
On the other hand...we won the space race and we went to the moon, except only 15 guys or thereabout went and for the rest of us didn't mean anything substantial at all.
I think I’m going to visit China soon, to the Pearl River Delta. I want to meet manufacturers and advance a product I am working on, and having lived in the US my entire life, I desperately need to see what it’s like when a country is really trying to build a future.
A confident, unified people under competent leadership can accomplish great things. I wish the Chinese continued success and hope their example eventually spurs the development of a new ruling class in the West.
Note: highest, not tallest. Highest should technically be the building here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole which is more than 12km above ground, that is to say 12km high. Or, rather, was, having been destroyed since. There’s other boreholes too though.
6LLvveMx2koXfwn|5 months ago
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/load-testing...
mk_stjames|5 months ago
The margin on actual load to a permanent set is likely 2-3x what those trucks are carrying. And the margin to actual failure from just this quasi static loading and no external environmental loads (wind)... even more so.
Unless there was some catastrophic fuck up in construction process or calculations, this is completely safe.
tencentshill|5 months ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/u3dqja/how...
stronglikedan|5 months ago
jp57|5 months ago
screye|5 months ago
Wikipedia indicates it is meant to increase tourism, but even China's most attractive regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall, Chengdu, Chongqing) are under-visited. I can't imagine that Guizhou will be on foreign tourist's agenda for at least a couple of decades. I think this is an attempt by the local govt. to get more internal tourism. It might work out. We'll see.
maxglute|5 months ago
Think of it this way.
Every 2 hours round trip to 2 minutes saves imported fossil. For trucking/freight that's like ~$80 of diesel both ways.
PRC construction workers, though less abundant is cheaper than it ever will be. So best time to build infra is always now, especially one that reduces long tail imports.
Every piece of infra that cuts time (apart from cutting X time) is basically frontloading (domestic) steel and concrete to reduce future oil imports (and emissions). Rough napkin math, 2B rmb construction cossts = ~3m barrels of oil, 2b kms of travel. Shaving off 2hrs (guestimate ~150km) and it pays itself off in imported fuel metric between ~10m trips (for freight , more for passenger). Guizhou has 40m people, if a fraction goes to see the bridge, do some tourist shit (induced demand) it would go a long way to basically subsidize a bridge that cut logistics times and wear on tear for the region.
AngryData|5 months ago
Its like if you put a dimensional portal across a Great Lake, even if neither side of the portal is currently not very prosperous, the fact that hours of ferry turned into minutes of travel would be a huge boon to both sides and gather attention, investments, and economic benefits that could turn both sides into prosperous cities.
epolanski|5 months ago
We don't need an economic angle to build great things that help people.
It's a bridge, it's meant to be a shortcut from point A to B.
We aren't just cogwheels in an economic system, there's more to life and progress as humans.
sour-taste|5 months ago
lm28469|5 months ago
Look at Schenzen in the 70s... If you want your country to move forward you need infrastructure, otherwise poor parts stay poor
lijok|5 months ago
American mindset
NooneAtAll3|5 months ago
I mean... that's exactly the reason?
Government funds get used to improve poorer regions to spread development. Improving transport links is a good way to do that
Plus it connects the country, which helps long-term stability
Think of these as more of interstate highways kind of projects
dyauspitr|5 months ago
Liftyee|5 months ago
vjvjvjvjghv|5 months ago
dspillett|5 months ago
Could be part of a bit of internal “not leaving anyone behind” propaganda, rather than a concern for national or international trade.
Less cynically, it could be a genuine attempt to help pull the area up economically. Lack of good transport infrastructure can be a major factor among those that hold areas back in that regard.
brnt|5 months ago
tokioyoyo|5 months ago
ChrisMarshallNY|5 months ago
Nations, companies, etc., build these things to "show off." It's nothing new, the Babylonians, Sumerians, and Egyptians did it.
delfinom|5 months ago
If you want to uplift a region, you invest into it. A bridge that cuts travel time by 2 hours increases domestic trade, it can even increase domestic and international tourism long term.
unknown|5 months ago
[deleted]
rayval|5 months ago
[deleted]
VariousPrograms|5 months ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges
epolanski|5 months ago
Say what you want but the only region in the world I went that felt like looking forward is Asia, even borderline decaying countries like Japan are clearly looking forward, you can see it from what and how they build, and not just in major centers.
stevage|5 months ago
ChuckMcM|5 months ago
nikkwong|5 months ago
Seriously, when's the last time we built something like this. The only initiative I can even think of is California high speed rail and that project just so happens to be a testament to the absolute antithesis of what I'm proclaiming.
dorianmariecom|5 months ago
pcl|5 months ago
More interestingly, to me at least, is the fact that 31 of the longest 50 are all in China (as are all but two of the 24 in the "under construction or planned").
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_suspension_bri...
bko|5 months ago
> The 2,890-metre-long structure, which took more than three years to complete, reduces travel time between the two sides of the canyon from two hours to two minutes.
Pretty impressive. I feel like things in the US take a lot longer and cost a lot more. The prime example is the second avenue subway extension which has been planned since 1920. But I just searched for a few significant bridges like the Gordie Howe bridge which took about 7 years and 6.4bn Canadian (connects US and Canada). And this bridge which seems a lot more of an engineering feat took 3 years and 8 months and cost between $280 to $292 million
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Avenue_Subway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordie_Howe_International_Brid...
https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3553875/the-new-tallest-...
hn_throwaway_99|5 months ago
I understand what you're saying, but the experience is quite different for the people driving over it compared to a bridge where it isn't a 2000 foot drop.
codingdave|5 months ago
All I'm seeing is fairly straightforward fact-based announcements. "The tallest bridge has opened - here it is." If that doesn't interest you, fine... but the reports are not hyperbole.
quantumcotton|4 months ago
This project is beautiful. This is an incredible work of art. It might not be the longest, but have you ever tried to pull cable over 2,000 ft hole? Have you ever seen what it takes to actually do those columns? The work looks nice very nice design. It fits with the landscape very well. And the fact that it cost only 140 million is an incredible. For a comparison if you look up one of the bridges I did. We spent 280 million on this We spent 280 million on this
I-91 Brattleboro Bridge | FIGG Bridge Group https://share.google/LKxgk1aEWh9gSIGhD
gwbas1c|5 months ago
In modern times, that translates to paying people to build roads and bridges. Why pay people to sit on their butts and eat bon-bons when you can pay them to get something of value?
In more tangible terms, building infrastructure does elevate peoples' situations.
CarVac|5 months ago
moralestapia|5 months ago
[deleted]
hackthemack|5 months ago
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/world%E2%80%99s-tallest...
stevage|5 months ago
adriand|5 months ago
burnt-resistor|5 months ago
There will be a place for people to run on a track on the outside (with an above harness), bungee jumping, misting rainbow effect sprayers, and visitor's areas underneath and in the top of one of the towers.
The team of engineers who developed this are also quite young.
https://youtu.be/sm5kLw54uVA
drcongo|5 months ago
hinkley|5 months ago
Scubabear68|5 months ago
vjvjvjvjghv|5 months ago
MangoToupe|5 months ago
xwolfi|5 months ago
Now, the US is focused on other stuff like maybe having some return on their investment, or looking at its people as first-class problems rather than ants meant for a greater national goal. It's not that bad, it depends on what you focus on, I think people in the US have nice stuff to look forward to, like I don't know, a holiday in Disneyland with their kids, when Chinese people often don't see our kids for years while we're building bridges far away.
Plus you know, we don't get to vote for great politicians like in the US and are stuck instead with bureaucrats that care more about infrastructure than pleasing the people. Be proud of that, I'd love for us to have your president (yes, I'm teasing you :p)
dgan|5 months ago
madaxe_again|5 months ago
gmueckl|5 months ago
/s
nowittyusername|5 months ago
mandeepj|5 months ago
https://youtu.be/glZr4dR4Xyw
potato3732842|5 months ago
Hnrobert42|5 months ago
flowerthoughts|5 months ago
DecoPerson|5 months ago
China is doing a lot of drilling, based on what I've seen first-hand.
toss1|5 months ago
Looks like a great spot for BASE jumping!
unknown|5 months ago
[deleted]
jmyeet|5 months ago
China's infrastructure building is beyond impressive. I always come back to this map of China's high speed rail built in 16 years (2008-2024) [1].
China is actually run by a meritocratic bureaucracy rather than the dumbest of people who do nothing more than sell pardons, run crypto scams, transfer government funds to the wealthiest of people, pander to religious hallucinations and sell out their constituents for board seats and jobs after their political career from the very billionaires that were buying them in office. And no, it's not just one party that does this although the current administration is particularly egregious.
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/highspeedrail/comments/1drmc2v/grow...
Mindless2112|5 months ago
leptons|5 months ago
There's some very heavy lifting you have to do to make the parties look at all close. If the Democrats had a supermajority for long enough, you would see some real change for the better, because we can actually protest Democrats to get them to do things, while the Republicans will just silence any dissent using US military against its citizens. Unfortunately a Democratic supermajority is unlikely to ever happen again the way things are going now. And this is 100% because how people voted, or didn't vote at all.
delta_p_delta_x|5 months ago
The_President|5 months ago
mandeepj|5 months ago
The irony is they are doing all that on the name of “meritocracy” and their side (the wrong Right) is falling for it and cheering it with both hands :-)
margalabargala|5 months ago
> Last month, a team of engineers deployed 96 trucks to strategic points across the bridge to recreate heavy traffic conditions to ensure it would not buckle.
Reminds me of this https://featureassets.gocomics.com/assets/74c15210deb9013171...
jacquesm|5 months ago
M95D|5 months ago
SoftTalker|5 months ago
wak90|5 months ago
geldedus|4 months ago
JumpinJack_Cash|5 months ago
On the other hand...we won the space race and we went to the moon, except only 15 guys or thereabout went and for the rest of us didn't mean anything substantial at all.
gverrilla|5 months ago
Illusions, bombs and coups...
And reality always wins over illusions in the end. China will show that with great joy to the people of the world.
jamie_ca|5 months ago
unknown|5 months ago
[deleted]
SequoiaHope|5 months ago
Freedom2|5 months ago
cadamsdotcom|5 months ago
What a spectacular scene.
I am proud on behalf of all the people who worked together to achieve this.
carabiner|5 months ago
intalentive|5 months ago
Kate5477|4 months ago
[deleted]
gverrilla|5 months ago
[deleted]
wtcactus|5 months ago
[deleted]
quink|5 months ago
quickthrowman|5 months ago