Engineering Question

[STEVE G]

I look at that photo and my first reaction is that the bridge is over engineered? Maybe an optical illusion and there is more water in that trough than it appears, but look at the massive supports and the quantity of them. Maybe needed due to the water sloshing around, and the momentum/sway that would build up if it was less rigidly supported. I wonder if they would build it the same way today? Pete

I think it looks that way because the angle of the picture makes the arches looker shorter than they are, here is a side view:
(And it's lasted for 200 years!)

[STEVE G]

I wonder how long it would take 20 of us to drink 1 cu mtr of beer. , and would we each gain 112 pounds in the process. Ow, forgot to calculate discharge frequency and volume. Pete

When I was in the Navy, during a visit to NAS Jacksonville we drank one of those Budweiser vans dry in about two and a half hours if that is any help to you. Mind you, I did almost get killed trying to play cricket afterwards when one of the Americans there managed to get the edge of the bat to connect with an over-the-shoulder style baseball swing that almost took my head off!

[PeteC]

Yes, that photo and Nereus's link show the bridge in better perspective. I can see now why it's built the way it is.

While we're at it we should touch on rooftop swimming pools. The first one I ever saw in my life was in 1985 at the Tara Hotel on Soi 26, Bangkok. It's an L shaped building so to speak, with the lobby being the bottom of the L and the pool right over top of it. I always had visions in those days of standing in the lobby checking in or out and getting washed out into the street! I couldn't help but glance up at the ceiling each time I was at the reception desk.

It's a fair size pool and relatively deep so I guess around 200-250 cu mtr of water. The only construction method I can think of is to run several heavy steel I beams right across the ceiling of the lobby to support it, probably having their own footings/pillars that the end of the beams rest upon on either side of the building. I've never seen one being built so this is just a guess. Pete

[Nereus]

The under croft car parking area at my Condo building has two swimming pools built at ground level above the (big) parking area. The support is by way of reinforced concrete beams, with some additional support columns at what is the deep end of the pools.
The only leaking problem comes from the cheap black iron piping of the building services. All of these pipes are exposed, so they can at least be either repaired or replaced.

As I have mentioned previously, the biggest danger with the way this has been built is the fact that the complete area is about two metres below the water level of the adjacent klong! And just to be sure ALL the main electrical switchboards, plus the emergency generator, are also installed in this area.