Surface
The approach and initial climb up the bridge have a smooth asphalt surface; however, on the top of the bridge the surface was uneven and bumpy when it was built. In September 2006, it was announced that the entire bridge would be resurfaced, only five years after the last resurfacing. This was completed in November 2009 by the construction firm Stirling Lloyd. However, the surfacing was carried out by the Swiss firm Aeschlimann using its own workforce and also importing all the plant used. A new type of asphalt called Gussasphalt was used on the bridge deck. In addition to having a smooth, skid-resistant finish, it requires no compaction and can be applied in very thin layers, thus reducing the weight added to the bridge. It is also flexible and as a result should last longer than the previous resurfacing.
Read more about this topic: Avonmouth Bridge
Famous quotes containing the word surface:
“I have passed down the river before sunrise on a summer morning, between fields of lilies still shut in sleep; and when, at length, the flakes of sunlight from over the bank fell on the surface of the water, whole fields of white blossoms seemed to flash open before me, as I floated along, like the unfolding of a banner, so sensible is this flower to the influence of the sun’s rays.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“White Pond and Walden are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light.... They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters are they! We never learned meanness of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“But the surface of the Earth was meant for man. He wasn’t meant to live in a hole in the ground.”
—Edward L. Bernds (b. 1911)