This page has a time lapsed video of the first piece of truss going up on the Huey P. Long Bridge widening project. I’m a little sad. I think during the next thunderstorm, I’m going to get in my car and drive to the Huey P., sit at the bottom, wait for a freight train and saddle up next to a big truck for the harrowing trip over.
Here’s a Times-Pic article too…
Huey P. Long Bridge’s ‘big lift’ is dubbed a success
I like this paragraph…
Parrales said she was encouraged by the public’s reaction to the weekend’s bridge shutdown. Instead of complaints about the inconvenience, Parrales said she heard only supportive comments and questions. In addition, she was impressed by the dozens of families who braved the heat and set up lawn chairs on the levees to watch the steel trusses rise into the air.
“They have such ownership of this project and this bridge,” she said. “That was really refreshing to hear.”
Also, here is more information than any non-engineer needs to know about truss bridges.
A friend of mine was one of the main Civil engineers on the project. It’s a billion dollar bridge paid for almost exclusively with state funds.
He gave a great presentation on it that’s filled with engineer-porn:
http://tef.tulane.edu/pdfs/a2.pdf
A HUGE engineering undertaking with virtually no interruption to bridge or marine traffic.
That was a damn awesome PDF.
Also, note the last couple slides where they go through all the Tulane engineers on the project…