Quote:
Originally Posted by TorqueDog
the bridge is needlessly expensive,
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Let's clear up this misconception too. The bridge is not needlessly expensive. A bare bones bridge in that location was going to cost ~$15 million or so (not the 2-3 million like some have said). In the location it is in, I can't see why anyone wouldn't want to spend a little extra to make the bridge look nice. The bridge over the Bow river in Banff came to something like $3 million dollars, but it was only half as wide and half as long, and very bare bones, nothing fancy at all. The peace bridge being twice as wide means that there's an instant doubling of cost, and being twice as long means that there's likely a Tripling of cost (longer spans increase the cost exponentially). Multiply that all together, and a similar bare bones bridge across the Bow in Calgary would be ~$18 million.
All of the newest pedestrian bridges in the Calgary area have been $4-5 million, despite, again, being half as wide and half as long, and much simpler design wise.
Now, whether or not it looks nice, I suppose is a matter of opinion, and that's fine. It is however, unique, and certainly not a lower quality design from Calatrava. I have seen the drawings, and it is high quality design, VERY complex. It might be the most complex engineering that Calatrava has ever done on a bridge.