Design
The crossing is 3.2 miles (5.1 km) long, consisting of a single central navigation span over the "Shoots" channel and approach viaducts on either side. The Shoots channel is the deepest section along the width of the Severn Estuary, and a longer span was required to ease the passage of shipping under this section. The central bridge section, called the Shoots Bridge, is of cable-stayed design and the central span (between the bridge pylons) is 499 yards (456.3 m) in length. The approach viaducts are of a segmental bridge design. Its Welsh end is near Sudbrook, Monmouthshire and its English end at Severn Beach in South Gloucestershire. The crossing forms a gentle S shape and near the English side crosses over the top of the Severn Tunnel.
The sides of the bridge are fitted with special railings to reduce lateral wind loads coming from the Severn Estuary onto the traffic and this has reduced the number of times that speed restrictions have been needed. The overall design of the new crossing makes it more resistant to high winds than the old Severn Bridge.
Read more about this topic: Second Severn Crossing
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)