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Crossing The Bridges Of Rhode Island

By: Samantha Kleiner

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the US in terms of land area. As such, the state has been fondly called "Little Rhody." However, the state's official nickname is "Ocean State." This is because almost a-tenth of the state's inland area is covered with saltwater, and the state is home to many oceanfront beaches--every part of the state is, at maximum, all within a 30-minute drive away from the ocean's edge.

Rhode Island covers two natural regions: Narragansett Bay's lowland to the east and New England Upland to the west. 12 miles offshore of the southern coast is Block Island. Narragansett Bay, meanwhile, has more than 30 islands, but the three largest are Aquidneck Island, Conanicut Island, and Prudence Island. To connect the island's major islands, suspension bridges have been constructed. The most notable of these bridges are James Verrazano Bridge and Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge.

James Verrazano Bridge crosses the West Passage of Narragansett Bay and is part of Route 138 and of the route to Newport, Rhode Island for northbound traffic from Interstate 95. James Verrazano Bridge is a wide-four lane bridge linking the Rhode Island towns of North Kingston and Jamestown. Concrete Jersey barriers separate the travel lanes. Before barriers were constructed to separate the lanes, a number of vehicular accidents on the bridge had been reported.

The bridge used post-tensioned concrete. Post-tensioning is a technique in bridge construction wherein each individual cable is given permanent freedom of movement as opposed to concrete. In order to achieve this, every cable is coated with lithium-based grease then covered with plastic sheathing. The transfer of tension from tendon to concrete is created when steel cable act against steel anchors fixed inside of the slab perimeter.

James Verrazano Bridge was built also with double concrete box girder. This means the main beams of the bridge are made of hollow box-shaped girders.

The Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, on the other hand, is a suspension bridge that crosses Narragansett Bay of Rhode Island. A suspension bridge is a type of bridge that uses suspension cables to carry much of the bridge's load weight. That is, the tension of the bridge is transferred to the suspension cables. The cables are anchored at each end of the bridge. Meanwhile, the roadway is supported by hangers or vertical suspension rods.

The Claiborne Pell Bridge connects Jamestown, Rhode Island (on Conanicut Island) and Newport (on Aquidneck Island). Spanning a total of 1601 feet, the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge is the largest suspension bridge in the New England region of the US and one of the largest suspension bridges in the world. Maintained by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority, Claiborne Pell Bridge has a width of 48 feet, a total length of 11,247 feet while its main towers stand at 400 feet above water surface level.

The bridges of Rhode Island play a very important role in connecting and shortening the travel-distance between the ocean-separated towns and cities of Rhode Island. The bridges show what engineering and modern construction technology can do.

Article Source: http://bytepowered.org/articles

Samantha Kleiner writes about what's important for homeowners for Providence Rhode Island Water Damage Restoration and Providence Rhode Island Flood Damage Cleanup

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