Planning and Development of the Project of Millennium Bridge - Research Paper Example

History The Millennium Bridge is a piece of architecture that is crossing the River Thames by the help of steel suspensions in London, England. Its purpose is to link the Bankside with the City for the pedestrians. Its main location is in between the Southward Bridge (downstream) and Blackfrairs Railway Bridge. This concept of this project came in result of a competition held by Financial Times along with London Borough of Southwark and the Royal Institute of British Architects in order to connect the Southwark and Blackfrairs bridges for the people on foot. As a result of this competition, unique and innovative idea shines out from all others. The main theme which was intended to make this complex structure of bridge look to appear simple in appearance suspended with only cables over River Thames giving the pedestrians, incredible view of city London away from the rush of traffic. The bridge is 4 meter in width, and the deck is made up of Aluminum flanked by stainless steel balustrades and is supported by cables to each side. As compared to other conventional style bridges, this bridge is comparatively very shallow where the cables slump 2.3m over the 144m of the central span. It is expected to be six time shallower than conventional bridges. There are four cables on each side of the deck attached to each abutment and two river supports are also placed for further strength. Within all these cables and supports, light weight deck passes through. At Arup, over 200 people get together in order to test, develop and realize the dream of Millennium Bridge project along with engineers and architectures. This team carried out the calculation, modeling and visualization of the project. Engineers were there to ensure the planning and designs got executed on the real bases with flaw. The design also undertook the changes made by the skilled engineers for the durability of the project. Engineers evolved the way in which the bridge gets its support from the tension and stiffness of tension suspension cables to make the project look simple. The foundation made in such a way to support 3000 tones of horizontal force in a 16m gap. A light pipe system for the bridge is designed in an innovative manner with the help of engineering in order to create a flash of light effect across the river. Materials used in the project were of repetitive nature, same kind of material was used throughout the project in order to reduce the costs of fabrication and also making maintenance easy for the future. One of the key aspects followed by Arup is that it operates in a way so that different areas of speciality get aligned to get the project done in an optimal way. This way of management of Arup also proved to be fruitful while working on the project of the millennium bridge when expertise was varying from project management to geotechnics, maritime advice to lighting and from engineering to archaeology. Accomplishments come to ones hand after overcoming the challenges. The project of Millennium Bridge had many shaking challenges on the time of its planning and development. The most daunting challenge was to overcome the movement occurred in the bridge when large number of people or load tries to cross the river. All the bridge has some ratio of movement but this project was designed by keeping in mind the movement of 80,000 – 100,000 people walking across the river from the day one. Because of this reason, this reason the bridge was closed down for the public. Later, careful and intense research was carried out to overcome this movement. And it was figured out the movement is caused when the movement in the footsteps of the crowd started following any synchronization. Later, in comparison with the other bridge of different structure the movement was comparable with the Millennium but the phenomenon deferred was that Millennium Bridge was having less movement when more crowded. As the two ways movement canceled each other effects. These challenges were not initially published out but the details are now available on their webpage. There were a number of test programs that Arup carried out in order to read the movement, its causes and available options. Futher modeling, international experts advice, data base of suspected reasons, and other research work was been done in order to figure out the ways. In the light of observations, the increase in structures stiffness and active and passive dumping were introduced in the structure to minimize the movements. There were number of changes done in the structure include changes under Deck steel, introducing viscous dampers, tuned mass dampers and dampers to the ground. After hard work of many teams this problem was overcome. The millennium bridge is connecting the two land marks in London, St Paul's Cathedral and Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Modern gallery. Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge are the symbol of Regeneration of London Borough of Southwark and it is also represent the evolution of bridge structures which were build on Thames River over the course of history. Survey A survey was conducted to see that how current undergraduate students of GSM feel about the usage of the millennium project. The most important reason behind opting for this survey was that through this survey we wanted to find out that what people of undergraduate level which share a certain age group and intellect level, feel about the millennium project. Due to survey we were able to collect information about the project. We used different statistical techniques including mean, median, mode and standard deviation to check the statistical significance, reliability and validity of our test. Since our surveys were randomly conducted so due to this reason they were more of standardized and easy to organize. Another very vital advantage of collecting information about the project’s usage, through this approach was the economic benefit. Since all of the questionnaires were similar so it became very easy for us to collect the information in a very low cost manner. In our survey we added only close ended questions. The reason for this approach was that we wanted to make our study more of an objective study. So when we provided close ended questions it resulted in answers which filled our required gaps. In the end these responses were not even easy to gather but they were also interpreted very efficiently. Before discussing the results of the survey, it is important to see that what the characterstics of the respondents were. As was required, only graduate students were included in our survey. All of these graduate students were being selected randomly with out any consideration of gender, color, ethnic group or social status. In order to ensure that all of the research goes on in a very systematic manner, proper systematic approach was used. Under this approach we started with first setting out strata’s for our research. Strata’s are basically different parts of any sample size. These small components define the most common and visible characteristics of the sampled people. Our sample size was about hundred students and as it has been discussed earlier, all of them were undergraduate students. We sampled students from different departments. The reason due to which we didn’t create any difference in the students or our samples was that we our self wanted to inculcate diversity in to our samples. Because we thought that we will be better evaluate the Millennium project, once its cost and structure are being evaluated by a wider group of people. In addition to this, due to selection of a wider lot of people we were able to cater the problem of group think. Group thinks basically occurs when there are people of similar lot or background. Due to similar way of thinking and processing, their responses on average come out to be pretty much similar. So when we sampled a randomly selected lot of people from different lot of people belonging to different back grounds, status and culture, we were able to better evaluate the project. In addition to the characteristics of undergraduate students, these people had pretty strong access to media. The reason due to which we can confidently say that these people were quite updated to the on goings is that we assume that since all of them are well educated so it means that they are pretty much aware of the on goings. In addition to this we assumed that even for their academics purpose they would be watching television, reading news papers and other magazines. On the basis of this assumption we can confidently say that all of our samples were good with the current affairs. If we talk about the employment status then we can say that about eighty percent of our sampled people were under employed, while rest of them were involved in different part time or full time earning generating activities. Reason for stating the employment status of our sampled individuals is that we are assuming that all of those individuals who are working have much more idea about the on goings. This is because of the reason that once they are on job or are associated with a set of people then it provides them a wider exposure leading to the better know how of the project and its benefits. However since our target samples were people of undergraduate studies so due to this reason we didn’t gave the employment factor any higher value. As was discussed earlier, we didn’t do any discrimination for any gender or social circle. All of the samples were randomly selected. Reason for this approach was that we believed that it is not important to divide our targeted lot on the basis of gender because it will not make any positive effect. Since on undergraduate level, almost both genders have similar level of knowledge so on the basis of our assumption, we didn’t make any classes on the basis of gender. Now if we talk about the results of our survey then one of the aspects which were pretty much highlighted was the inefficient designing error at the launching stage. We found people complaining that at the launch of the project in 2000 when thousands of people gathered at a same point to be the pioneer pedestrian travelers on the bridge, bridge shacked. Reasons for this shacking were later identified and errors were rectified. Although for the next time before completely opening it, a proper testing was done. Under this test, different simulations were conducted through which different numbers of people were requested to walk on the bridge. In addition to this another aspect on which we collected data was the management and leadership behind the project. Despite the initial problems, through our research we found people complementing the leadership and the management team behind the project. They all were of the view that from the lower level manager to the top level management, a well experienced and highly competitive team was hired to launch the landmark. May be this was the reason due to which people strongly answered in the favor of successful continual of the project. Because people said that although in start, an issue was there, but such faults can happen, so more important thing was that error was identified and rectified. Last and the most important question about the usage of the project, here we got strongly positive results. We found people saying that this project is not just useful, but it also a very amazing landmark. So through this project value addition was done not only for local people but also hundreds of tourists were attracted because of this project. The reason behind is its uniqueness and beauty. Bridge is being designed in a very beautiful manner and along with this it is one of its kind bridges, where all the way through, pedestrians found them enjoying the beautiful and natural surroundings. Now if we talk about the current and future period of the project then it can be said that no doubt that this project is providing a lot of value to the locals. In addition to this, it is added it is increasing the beauty of the area, which is leading to more and more attraction of the tourists. Now here a question might arise that how much can a single project attract tourists. Then answer to that question is that we look around then we can surely see that it is a single project or location which attracts thousands of tourists to that location. For the millennium bridge its most attractive factor is its uniqueness. A wonderful experience of passing over a river on your feet is surely attractive for all. So in short it can be said that the way it is being designed and constructed, for many of the upcoming years, London is going to capitalize a lot on the basis of this project. Since in 2012 Olympics are coming to London, so it is an extraordinary addition to the attractiveness of the area for the tourists. Costs If we talk about the cost then it can be said that since the best teams were hired for the project so there were high initial costs associated with the project. Engineering company which was being hired for the project is known to be best in their field and this was the reason that beside the initial error, project was later on rectified. Although high cost was being faced due to the recruitment of the best but this cost can be seen in the form of trust which people put on the project. As it has been mentioned above that people feel that some issues arrived but since it’s in the hands of best so that issue must have been resolved. Here important factor is that although it might appear that a high engineering company cost would have resulted in the lift of the total bill but it actually was not the case. Since the best were there to manage so all of the proceedings were being conducted in a very efficient and effective manner. We have already discussed the associated benefits with the project that in addition to providing a very charming transport route, authorities have also generated a very attractive item for the tourist. It will be surely attracting thousands of tourists on the annual basis and the reason for this large number of visitors will be the uniqueness of the project. Risks In the end, talking about the risks associated with the project. Either it is any business, any product or any structure, risks are always there. Some of these risks can be mitigated while some portions the risk always stays there. In this case, through an excellent combination of teams, an outstanding designing and planning was done to ensure that all sort of unfortunate events can be eliminated. Although despite massive planning and simulation efforts, there was a shacking problem at the launching stage but it was later rectified. So looking at this it can be said that although manufacturers have ensured no more problems with the project but we have much time seen the best falling, so still there lies a room for manufacturing errors. Another significant risk associated to the project is the natural disaster risk. This risk is being mitigated by designing the project in such a manner that it can stand against any unfortunate natural disaster but it has some limits and those limits always pose a risk for any structure. However in the end it can be said that this project is an outstanding project and will add to the beauty of the area. Read More