Curving, Offset Masts Will Create England's Tallest Bridge

摘要

The design of a cable-stayed bridge that will cross the river Wear in northeastern England in the city of Sunderland will feature a unique arrangement of cable stays in that the stays will be attached to a pair of curving, offset masts. The larger of the pre-stressed masts will rise 187 m above sea level, making the bridge the tallest in England and, for a while, the tallest in the United Kingdom. Construction of the New Wear Crossing is expected to begin in 2012 and to be completed in 2014, explained Matthew Wells, CEng, a director of Techniker Ltd, the London-based structural engineers of the New Wear Crossing project, in written responses to questions from Civil Engineering. The structure's record height for the United Kingdom is expected to be surpassed in 2016 when the new structure that will increase the capacity of the Forth Road Bridge is scheduled to open in Scotland with a planned height of 200 m, although the New Wear Crossing will probably remain the tallest bridge in England, noted Wells.