Bixby
Creek Bridge
Along
the Pacific coast of California at Big Sur, the Bixby Creek Bridge stands as a
model reminder of how to seek and correct structural problems early on, long
before they trigger a potential disaster. When inspectors declared the span
functionally obsolete in 1997, engineers from the California Department of
Transportation set out to save it. Among other repairs, they strengthened the
tall columns beneath the bridge by encasing them in white "jackets"
of epoxy and carbon nanofibers, a composite material that is both stronger and
lighter than steel. So far, more than a thousand California bridges have
undergone similar renovations as part of a plan to help the bridges withstand
natural disasters.
