Bridges


	See also the ‘roll tube structures’ page


	Bridges are really important structures. We usually take them for granted but we find it impossible to do without them. This was found to be the case when the Cumbrian Floods took place in the winter of 2009-10.


	Some bridges were swept away or so badly damaged that they had to be taken down. Sadly, lives were lost in the tragedy.


	New bridges had to be built as quickly as possible because whole communities were cut off from friends, families and their places of work. A journey which took 5 minutes across the bridge now took hours of traveling by car, bus or train to go all the way round by another route.


	The Army Engineers stepped in to build this bridge in Workington. It is called a Bailey Bridge and was designed for use in the Second World War to replace bridges quickly which had been bombed and destroyed in battles.


	How did they build a bridge across a wide river without holding it up in the middle? Surely it would just collapse before it was finished? Perhaps you could research this and work out how they did it!

		Designing your own bridge and making it from paper roll tubes is great fun and the bridges are incredibly strong yet weigh very little! Look at these pictures of roll tube bridges made by Primary and Secondary school students.....


			Sydney Harbour Bridge

Design for an arched footbridge. This model is 2metres across!

				Left: a very long girder bridge. Right: The Tyne bridge Newcastle. It is similar to the Sydney harbour bridge but they are not copies! Which one was built first?

	Left: A model of the Stephenson Bridge (High Level Bridge) Newcastle. Right: A model of the Metro bridge Newcastle. One half has almost been completed!

		Left: A model of the Armstrong Swing Bridge Newcastle. It rotates through 90 degrees to allow ships to pass. Right: A WWII scene featuring a Bailey bridge over a river.

Do you have a favourite bridge?

These are my favourites. Do you know what they are called and where they are?


	Bridge Design and Construction

These pictures show a group of Engineering and Art and Design students taking part in a Work Related Learning Activity. The challenge involves finding out how a bridge works then deciding which type of bridge might suit a particular need or set of conditions. Students then build various bridges and test the strength as well as come up with new concept bridge designs like the Gateshead Millenium bridge over the River Tyne.




		click this picture


This group are sketching bridges which they have seen before. They go on to find out why there are so many different bridge designs and then produce a new concept bridge.

	A basic set of tools and workbench are required. The bundle of aluminium strips was used to make the girder bridge bottom left.

		How does a suspension bridge work? Let’s build one and find out!


	Manufacturing and Product Design Diploma


	This aluminium strip girder bridge was tested and held an amazing 29 house bricks - considerably more than the weight of the bridge itself!

		Plastic conduit was used to construct this arch bridge which was then modified so that the inner structure folded away to allow ships to pass under

There’s more about building bridges in the following sections of the website...

World War II structures

and

Roll Tube Structures

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