Bridgescape - The Art of Designing Bridges

341 Pages·2004·50.754 MB·English

by  Frederick Gottemoeller

' . - •'
V S E C O N D E D I TT II OO N
I
BRIDGESCAPE
The Art of Designing Bridges
FREDERICK GOTTEMOELLER

I
B
ridgescape
Second Edition
T A D B
he rt of esigning ridges
Frederick Gottemoeller
F
WILEY
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Cover Photo: Boston's new Zakim Bridge carries 1-93 and an interchange ramp across
the Charles River. The Swiss bridge engineer Christian Menn developed the concept
and did the preliminary design.
This book is printed on acid-free paper. @
Copyright © 2004 by John Wiley & Sons. Inc.. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Piiblication Data:
Gottemoeller, Frederick.
Bridgescape: the art of designing bridges/Frederick Gottemoeller.—2nd ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-471-26773-2 (Cloth)
1. Bridges—Design and construction. 2. Architecture—Aesthetics. I. Title.
TG300.G67 2004
725’98—dc222
2003017779
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
n
C
ontents
Foreword to the First Edition v
Foreword to the Second Edition
Vll
Preface ix
Acknowledgments
XI
chapter one INTRODUCTION 1
The Aesthetic Dimension of Bridge Engineering 1
Five Fundamental Ideas 5
Aesthetic Quality and Structural Performance 10
Aesthetic Quality and Cost 15
The Bridge Engineer’s Role 21
Using This Book 24
chapter two UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS 27
Terminology 27
Analyzing the Appearance of Bridges 35
Structural Art 43
The 10 Determinants of Appearance 55
Improving Aesthetic Skills 58
chapter three DESIGNING A BRIDGE: PRACTICAL
PROCEDURES 61
The Bridge Design Process 61
Developing a Design Intention/Vision 72
Involving Communities 82
Involving Other Visual Professionals 90
Bridge Aesthetics in the Environmental Impact Statement 92
chapter four A DESIGN LANGUAGE: GUIDELINES
FOR THE FIRST FIVE DETERMINANTS
OF APPEARANCE 97
Geometry 98
Superstructure Type 102
!V | C O NT I': X T S
Pier Placement 111
Abutment and Wall Placement 117
Superstructure Shape, Including Parapets, Railings,
and Bearings 126
chapterfive A DESIGN LANGUAGE: GUIDELINES
FOR THE SECOND FIVE DETERMINANTS
OF APPEARANCE 1 43
Pier Shape 143
Abutment and Wall Shape 158
Color 164
Surface Patterns, Texture, Ornamentation, and Details 177
Signing, Lighting, and Landscaping 188
chapter six PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: TYPICAL
BRIDGES 197
Highway-over-Highway Bridges 197
Valleys and Highway Cuts 216
Rivers and Tidal Waterways 224
Interchange Ramps and Viaducts 235
Movable Bridges 249
Railroad Bridges 264
Pedestrian Bridges 274
chapter seven MAKING IT HAPPEN: ORGANIZATIONAL
CONSIDERATIONS 285
The Responsibilities of Bridge-Building Organizations 285
The Responsibilities of Professional Organizations
and Consultants 290
The Responsibilities of Engineering Educators 291
The Contribution of Engineering Design Competitions 293
Conclusion THE ENGINEER AS STRUCTURAL ARTIST 301
Illustration Credits 303
Index 309
■ 1"
F
oreword to the
F E
irst dition
In the United States of the early 1950s, anyone beginning to practice structural engi­
neering faced a society in which new construction was underway at an unprece­
dented rate; ironically, however, education in engineering design was almost
nonexistent. In particular, once the interstate system began to be built, bridges also
began to appear in vast numbers with, sadly, very few attracting attention as anything
more than “mere” utilitarian objects. Education in structural analysis and the dimen­
sioning of structural elements took precedence over design—design, that is, in the
sense of setting the form and paying attention to appearance. There was almost no
literature on bridge design in the United States; post-World War II structural engi­
neers had little knowledge of the great structures of the recent past.
More recently, many articles on bridge aesthetics have appeared; but in reality
these works, especially those by engineers, are on design. The most complete, anno­
tated bibliography on bridge aesthetics illustrates well the absence of bridge design
writings right after World War II. Of the 244 entries, only 65 were written in the
100 years before 1950, and only 8 were written in the 1950s. By contrast, 34
appeared in the 1960s, 69 in the 1970s, and 68 between 1980 and 1990. What all of
this writing needed was some work that would organize and focus these diverse ideas
into a book that could be used directly by both educators and practicing engineers.
Frederick Gottemoeller has done just that in this carefully illustrated volume.
Three features mark this book:
First, he has organized design around two sets each of five criteria, one primar­
ily structural and having major influences on appearance, and the other only secon­
darily structural and having less influence. Moreover, by putting each of the ten
criteria in order of importance, he focuses our attention on priorities and controlling
ideas rather than on merely a long checklist. At the same time, he deals with a wide
variety of details but in an ordered way.
Second, he has illustrated all of the ideas with clear photos of actual bridges, as
well as with elegant drawings. The illustrations are not mere decoration, as they are
in so many engineering texts, but are linked carefully to the text. As such they not
only make clear Mr. Gottemoeller’s ideas, but overall they fit his central theme that
all parts of the structure are to be at once both useful and attractive.
Third, he continually emphasizes the idea that bridge appearance is the province
of the structural engineer and that the primary features of bridges are structural. It is
just those structural ideas that can best lead to more pleasing bridges. The profession
is called upon by society to design bridges that will please not only the present pop­
ulation but also its posterity. The book thus expands the vision of engineering to
vi | FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION
include design in its most general sense, which implies, as he makes clear, that engi­
neers become articulate spokespersons for the profession both in their handling of
the materials for design and in their interactions with the general public.
I have worked with Fred Gottemoeller on bridge design issues for over 10 years
and I know that our profession will welcome his book. It is sorely needed. Together,
he and I have collaborated with many forward-looking state bridge engineers—all of
whom are wrestling with the problem of responsible design: bridges that will appeal
visually to the public while at the same time satisfying the stringent requirements of
performance and cost. Bridges are one major example of that central cultural issue in
an open society of public accountability.
That feature of accountability represents another aspect of Fred Gottemoeller's
talents reflected in this book. He is deeply concerned with the problem of involving
local people in the design process such that they can better understand engineering,
and engineers can better appreciate the need for striking appearance in bridges. Mr.
Gottemoeller devotes much of his professional practice to interactions with the pub­
lic and this book lays a strong groundwork for such activity. The book, being free
from the dense jargon of engineering while being beautifully illustrated, will provide
common ground for citizen-engineer mutual education.
The author’s education in both engineering and architecture allows him to
introduce ideas common to one profession that stresses aesthetics and from the other
profession that centers upon technique. When these two sets of ideas merge, as they
do in this book, a new synthesis emerges that opens up opportunities for structural
engineers. The general public is aware of the great suspension bridges; this book
should make them look again at what they now see as the more mundane works of
bridge engineering.
David P. Billington
Princeton University
F
oreword to the
S E
econd dition
In recent years myriad books titled “Bridges” have been thrown on the market,
usually cursory collections of brilliant photographs of the same visual highlights of
the same landmark bridges. Though these books do bring bridges to the attention
of the broad public, they simultaneously insinuate that creating a bridge is the
result of a stroke of genius accessible only to a very few inspired artists or architects,
and that only landmark bridges are worth the effort and the attention of such gifted
designers.
Fred Gottemoeller’s book tackles what bridge design is really about. He
addresses all bridges that have an impact on our natural and cultural environment, not
just the landmark bridges, and shows how to arrive at solutions that are technically,
economically, and aesthetically appropriate.
Bridges are prominent and lasting. They can enrich or spoil their environments
for a long time. That includes the small and medium-size “workhorses” (as the
author calls them) of our transportation system for rail and road that, by their sheer
number, have a major impact on the environment. These countless overcrossings are
usually so dull and mean, each of them a missed opportunity to expose millions of
travellers to creative bridge design. Though other products of human creativity, such
as cars, furniture, or even single-family houses are, when compared with bridges,
only ephemeral, each has its own visually adept profession shaping its design. Bridges
do not. Writing about and teaching bridge design at our universities is still limited to
analysis and dimensioning, skipping the conceptual design that determines form and
that must precede analysis and predetermine its output.
My identification of this gap should by no means be misinterpreted as a call for
visual bridge designers to embellish and decorate what some mere engineer has left
behind, nor for bridge design competitions amongst architects.
No, holistic and high-quality bridges only can result from a profound knowledge
in structural engineering, from materials through analysis to manufacture combined
in one-and-the-same person with creativity, imagination, and curiosity. The shape of
a bridge must result from its purpose, its site, its materials, its flow of forces, and its
erection process, so that each bridge may be considered some day as a contribution
to its culture. Those who skip the conceptual design phase of a bridge by recycling a
standard design miss the best and most stimulating part of structural engineering.
Inspecting the site, preparing and rejecting hundreds of sketches, trying and improv­
ing again and again, and finally some years later inspecting the outcome provides the
engaged bridge designer with that indescribable feeling God must have felt after cre­
ating the earth.