A Note on the Computer Analysis of Foundation Rafts Resting on Plastic Soils: a Technical Note

Erskine Bridge, over the Clyde estuary, is a multispan road bridge with the dual two-lane carriageways, footpaths and cycle tracks carried on a continuous high yield steel box girder of trapezoidal cross-section. The main span, of 350m (1000 ft), is stayed by single cables over centre towers above the main Piers and anchored in the median. The bridge is notable for the economy of material: steelwork in the superstructure weighs only 298 kg/m2 (61 lb/ft2) of deck area and steelwork plus mastic road surfacing 393 kg/m2 (80 lblft2). The cost of the bridge has been correspondingly attractive: £124 per m2 (£11.5 per ft2) of deck area. O.A. Kerensky, W. Henderson and W.C. Brown

Mr. J. S. Trentham: It was obvious that this job was going to be one of great interest from the very beginning although nobody envisaged that it would receive the Concrete Society Award for 1971.

In the January issue of The Structural Engineer, p. 28, there was a report on the damage to a 7-storey office block in Belfast caused by a bomb attack. This report has been interpreted by some engineers as an indictment against permanent wood-wool formwork, which is unfortunate.