세계 최장의 교량은 일본의 아카시대교 (Akashi Kaikyo Bridge)이다. 여기서 ‘최장(longest)’은 교량 전체의 길이(연장 혹은 교장)를 의미하지 않고 교각과 교각의 거리(경간 혹은 지간)를 의미한다.
연장으로 세계에서 제일 긴 다리는 현재 기네스북에 등록되어 있는 자료에 의하면 미국의 Lake Pontchartrain Causeway이다. 태풍 Katrina로 엄청난 피해를 받은 뉴올리언스에 있는 미국에서 두번째로 큰 해수호 Pontchartrain를 가로지르는 이 도로는 교량으로 길이가 자그마치 38.422 km나 된다.
Consisting of parallel, 24-mile-long spans, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the world’s longest overwater highway bridge and one of the oldest prestressed concrete bridges built in the U.S. Engineers loaded the bridge pieces on barges and towed them to construction points on the lake. The twin bridges are supported by more than 9,500 hollow-cylinder pilings approximately 55 inches in diameter; the largest piles ever driven at the time of the first span’s construction in 1955. Since the second span opened to the public in 1969, a drawbridge has been added, along with a tracking device to detect approaching barges during foggy conditions.
7 Comments
I work for the Pontchartrain Causeway as a bridge inspector. Me and 2 other scuba dive around every single piling to check for cracks and imperfections. Its a never ending job. Each diver gets a piling and has to spend at least 12min and each piling and swim around it in circles checking for cracks. So far there are a few pilings that need to be totally replaced.. The job is pretty interesting because of the stuff we find on the bottom of the lake under the causeway. visibility is approx. 2-6 ft. It gets hard to see most of the time… if you or anyone else wants to see some pretty neat pictures of the causeway just send me an e-mail with the subject titling causeway.
-Aaron
Hi, Aaron. Thank you for your kindness… I have sent you an email asking for photos.
Aaron Paul?
Aaron,
I drive the Causeway everyday to work..would like to see pics….
Thanks.
MilesSJacobs@Yahoo.com
This is sujith.
I need some pictures regarding this topic.
can anyone send me some pictures ?
Thank you..
my email ID is sujith.narayan@yahoo.com
Sujith, check email. I sent photos that I got from Aaron P.