A1 Hidalgo

The goal for creating my design was to make the most cost efficient bridge but at the same time it has a good structure serves its purpose. The shape of bridge was made by first constructing a Prat truss on top of the bridge and when that failed a Warren type bridge was added under for support.

As I worked on the design of the bridge trial and error helped me to choose the best solutions for each of the problems that I was facing. for example the v shape that is in the middle of the top truss was made by trial and error. The bottom truss has a special shape it bulges in the middle section. By doing this the weight is better distributed throughout the bridge. For the top part of the bridge the cross bars used to go in the opposite direction (from the upper right corner to the left bottom corner). When I went and observed the Strawberry Mansion Bridge, I realized that if I switched the direction of the cross bars the bridge would be better supported and this proved to be true. The estimated cost of this bridge was 430 thousand dollars. When the cross bars were reoriented the cost went down by about 20 thousand dollars.
This design helped me learn that the height and length of the trusses have an effect of the the maximum stress that they can handle.