Quote:
Originally Posted by seadragon
Perhaps I'm mistaken and wish to be, but it's my understanding that most of the major permanent steel components for the new Bay Bridge eastern span in California are made in Shanghai. That because of mill capacity and hidden subsidies, the Chinese companies were able to provide bids for such large parts with much less lead time and cost, unmatched by USA bidders. I was disappointed to learn of this being that the Bay Bridge east span is so large and high profile capital project.]
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The massive box girders that make up the eastern span of the Bay Bridge involve a special type of fabrication, since the segments are so gigantic. The cost of setting up a production line from scratch to produce these components would be incredible. But since China's already building tons of massive bridges, they can just tweak an existing production line, which greatly reduces the fixed costs versus an American company building one from scratch. These cost savings are enough that they more than offset the costs of transporting the pieces across the Pacific.
The pieces can also be directly transported from China to the Bay by water, which greatly simplifies the transport (imagine if you had to truck the segments overland!)