Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
Yeah, but that's because the current volumes of traffic on the Champlain, including tons of commercial trucking, have been way above the predicted original design parameters. It definitely couldn't continue to handle that safely in the long term, so it made more financial sense to build a new bridge.
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The report mentions that the bridge is into its exponential decay curve with respect to its conditions - even decreasing the load on it may not significantly lengthen the bridge's lifespan. While load is an important consideration for lifespan, issues such as corrosion from salt (which is independent of load) play a major factor as well.
There's a bunch of problems they list - girders, piers, crossbeams, quality of the concrete used. It doesn't seem that these are easily addressed. Sad to see it go, but you wouldn't catch me driving across it in 20 years if there was a new bridge next to it, traffic be damned.