We have fun

Princess Caroline comments:

David Sucher, Jensen Intercepter, etc., have you seen this:

http://www.ausaid.gov.au/hottopics/topic.cfm?ID=3967_1806_7933_9250_2604

It sure blows away WSDOT's Elliott Bay depth concerns, and I would subsequently posit tower heights.

I wonder who is driving the research at WSDOT or what company they are using who they are using to the research. They are way behind from a technical standpoint. Perhaps we should ask for help from the Austrailian and Vietnamese governments to build a cable stayed bay bridge for us....sooner or later someone is going to have to call B.S. on WSDOT.

I respond:

Thanks, Princess Caroline, for the reference to that bridge is in Vietnam.

I found this sentence which might be relevant: "The bridge is a world class structure that overcame significant technical problems such as the need for piling up to 100 meters deep."

If the reference is to be read as pilings "in water up to 100 meters deep" then indeed some might be under the impression that this sentence is significant. But it is not, for reasons I will explain.

One hundred meters is about 330 feet. The maximum depth of Elliott Bay (along the path suggested by WSDOT for a Bay Bridge) is about 170 feet.

HOWEVER, the way meters and feet are measured in Vietnam and in Washington State is completley different. So references to what works in Vietnam (as engineered by AUSTRALIANS!) is simply not germane to Seattle. A meter in Vietnam and a meter in Seattle is not the same because of the different political contexts. What can be engineered in Vietnam is simply irrelevant to our situation in Seattle.

It's a good try, however, and I admire your pluck. But just remember: We in Seattle are unique. We have unique conditions. We have unique laws of physics. This is God's country where we do everything for the children. Things which work every other place in the world will simply NOT work here.

Comments

[Gomez]

Great, now Dan Savage is going to run his mouth some more mocking the fact that Seattle is special etc.