Talk:3097: Bridge Types
For budget overrun, see olympic stadium of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
162.158.126.202 01:23, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
Very disappointed there's no bridge card game reference, but I guess that's not one of Randall's types of nerdiness :( 172.71.254.203 01:45, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
I would like to note that cable stayed bridges, budget overrun here, are much cheaper than equivalent suspension bridges. It because they use less materials and can be built faster meaning less labor. 172.69.58.51 01:50, 3 June 2025
- Tru dat in general, but I think that this is a reference to the Zakim Bridge in downtown Boston, part of the "Big Dig" project that became notorious for its budget overruns and related shenanigans. Given that Randall M. lives in Boston, that makes this panel something of an inside joke. 172.71.147.224 03:15, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
The St. Louis Arch is a repurposed-elevator-suspended-arch-but-without-the-base-and-wires bridge if you squint hard enough. The elevator is also fun. 172.69.67.214 01:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
Nothing about a a bridge circuit or these many other bridges either. Sigh. 172.69.67.214 01:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
- And where, oh where, are Lloyd, Beau, Jeff, and Jordan? 162.158.41.84 03:19, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
The L'Engle is a take off on a Wrinkle in time? But this one is in space? -- 162.158.91.124 (talk) 02:26, 3 June 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- There's some space-warping in L'Engle's books. 162.158.174.63 02:44, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
The "budget overrun" bridge doesn't really look like the Zakim bridge to me. It looks a lot like the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin. I don't know what the budget of that bridge was, but according to wiki it cost 60 million euros, which sounds like a lot given that the bridge isn't all that long or wide. 172.70.126.87 03:24, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
- Perhaps if Randall M. drew too close a likeness to the Zakim Bridge, he feared a visit from officials with lawyers and/or cement shoes. ("Only the paranoid survive ...") It seems, from a quick tour of the Internet, that words like "grandiose and overblown" are easily applied to cable-stayed bridge designs/aesthetics. I wasn't easily able to find information on budget overruns for these bridges, and see the commentator above who pointed out the lower costs overall of cable-stayed vs suspension bridges. But as a former resident of Greater Boston, I can report the pervasiveness of the Big Dig and its challenges, budgetary and otherwise, in local life and lore. 172.68.22.108 04:32, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
- The cable-stayed bridge is the current darling of artists that accidentally went to engineering school, who are notorious for running over budget and behind schedule. RegularSizedGuy (talk) 04:40, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
- I can see the suggestion of the Beckett bridge, but in my eyes the obvious template would be Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge Nachtvogel (talk) 06:00, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
I think the repurposed elevator should be considered a dig at Elon Musks The Boring Company, even though they tunnel rather then bridge 162.158.182.138 04:37, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
Added a bunch of explanations 162.158.8.132 07:31, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
The Repurposed Elevator is actually a real thing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmid_Peoplemover It's not as strange as you think. It's a space effective, but too expensive solution to the problem of not making cramped railway crossroads more cramped. 162.158.172.112 07:39, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
