surely this is a good idea that doesn’t have the capacity to end real fuckin badly

Bridges aren’t supposed to have weight restrictions on them. That is, they don’t come with weight restrictions on them when they’re new. So a bridge with a weight restriction on it is a sign that something has gone wrong and the bridge does not meet current standards.

The maximum weight that a vehicle is allowed to carry on the Interstate System per federal law is 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight (with a max of 20,000 pounds per axle). That’s 40 tons. That limit applies to every inch of pavement, not just the bridges. Since this is a known cap, a new Interstate bridge will be designed to accommodate an 80,000 lb GVW load on it. You could say the bridge’s weight limit is 80,000 lb/40 tons but that doesn’t really have much meaning, because a load higher than that would be illegal to transport on public roads anyway, and the road leading up to the bridge has the same weight restriction. (In practice, the bridge doubtlessly will be designed to have a little bit of let to it just in case some idiot tries to squeak by a few hundred extra pounds.)

Now, note that that law applies to the Interstate System only, because the federal government only has a governing interest in the Interstate System (and other roads that together make up something called the National Highway System) because they partially fund it. Most long-distance roads are owned and funded by the states. The states could theoretically set lower standard weight limits and/or design bridges with lower weight limits…but in practice they don’t.

One, because all of that 80,000 lb GVW traffic on the Interstate system has to go somewhere when it exits the system.

Two, because a group called the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO, who are best known for picking the road numbers) maintains a catalog of standard components for making bridges that meet Interstate System requirements. Engineers are expensive on a per-hour basis, so if you can direct your engineer to use standard components and make a standard bridge, that’s a lot cheaper than having them design a bridge from scratch to go over the creek in Nowheresville. As a result, most new bridges meet Interstate standards and have an 80,000 lb GVW rating even if they aren’t on the Interstate system. (This is also why all new bridges kind of look the same, but we’re not worried about how boring the bridges are for the sake of this post.)

So a bridge only has an explicit weight limit if it has been damaged in some way (through failure to properly maintain it usually) or because it predates the application of Interstate System standards and the standard AASHTO bridges.

Older bridges often have other problems in addition to the weight limits: many older designs are what we call “fracture critical”, which means that if one component of the bridge fails the whole thing collapses. Modern bridge designs have redundancy designed into them so that if one beam fails the other beams will carry the load until the damaged beam can be replaced. Older bridges also often don’t meet other standards, like height (16 ft clearance) and width (12 ft per lane plus 14 ft for shoulders) requirements.

Biden isn’t advocating eliminating weight limits and letting it be a laissez-faire free-for-all where trucks can just go wherever they want. He’s advocating for replacing bridges that carry weight limits with new ones that don’t have them.

wow i got absolutely schooled thank you for all this this is really informative. i have learned so much

This is a great explanation of what the fuck Biden was talking about in his tweet. because I will freely admit that I also went “…….wtf?????” when I read it. So thank you.

Today I learned about civil engineering.

Hey Kingtrashraccoon, why is your reply from 59min ago on the day 7/4/2023 above 2 replies from 01/29/2022?

How about we just have like... hey trans people, post your pay links or wishlist or whatever you got. No limits, no trans excluded, intersex welcome, any and all genders off the social conventions included. I'll just reblog em a bunch.

I need a reblog to share your info, please use those, not comments or tags. I try to reblog immediately every instance I see between 10am and 10pm, everything else goes into the queue.

Additionally, Reddit is known to have further donation resources, some of which are outlined and linked in this post.

Hey what's up why not give some money to a trans non-binary person with untreated ADHD who is also a full-time carer this pride/my birthday month 🤪

Ko-fi

PayPal (ignore the deadname)

Venmo is @addisonteach

how nude can a clown be before it ceases to be a clown? is the makeup enough?

i think a clown can be Full Nude and still a clown but, as one removes clothing, the importance of that make-up skyrockets and may require more extensive coverage than would normally be done for clowning.

red spherical fake nose on the tip of the pienis

Rainbow bush wig

When a clown is at their most accomplished, they have no need of the physical trappings of the clown. The clown can summon their innate capacity for clowning via physical pantomime and expression, manifesting their clown through sheer force of charisma. You can take everything from a clown but you cannot take the ability to clown itself.

Reblog to give a nonbinary person a warm cup of soup.

mutuals do this

take care of yourself

The person I reblogged this from deserves to be happy

I tried to scroll past this. I really did

Here we go:

This will never NOT be funny

I’m so glad this is on tumblr

My favourite thing about this is, he didn’t even have to call him ‘Captain’ he could have used the screen-name but he was SO MARRIED TO THE IMMERSION that he DID.

Passenger: CAPTAIIIIN!!!

Captain: y-yeah?

Passenger: LOOOOOOOK!

(FULL BLAST PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN MUSIC)

my fav.

Fun fact, the developers of this game loved this video so much that they made it an official advertisement of the game

@sharkchimedes and I were joking around and we realized Connecticut Clark and Malfina would work with Clark and Bruce and I finally got around to making it. this took three and a half episodes of The Batman to make enjoy

My favorite thing about this is Bruce calling him a 4/10 when canonically in multiple comic universes they look nearly identical to the point Clark can pretend to be Bruce

Just a tip!

If you're in a place, mentally or physically, where you only have the spoons to take care of yourself in one way, I HIGHLY recommend taking care of your teeth.

Acne goes away. You can always start working out later. Stink is easily fixed with a single shower. Hair can be brushed and cut.

Issues with teeth are expensive, painful, and overall suck. Your teeth health can have an impact on other things, too, like jaw issues.

If you're faced with the choice of either taking a shower or brushing your teeth, I highly recommend brushing your teeth. Whatever tools help you to do that, disposable floss picks/toothbrushes, kids fun-flavored toothpaste, soft bristled brushes, anything is better than nothing.

A further trick that will not work for everyone but worked wonders for me: if you struggle with teeth stuff overall (not me having trauma about bleeding gums, LOL), put out an electric toothbrush, a regular toothbrush, mouthwash, and floss. Then, instead of "oh God I can't possibly deal with my teeth tonight," use whichever one feels the least bad in that moment.

(It is not the floss. It is never, ever the floss. But sometimes I can't stand the brr of the electric brush, and sometimes it's too much work to go up and down with the regular brush, and sometimes the mouthwash is too burny. But the trick is, one of them always sounds less horrible than the others. Brains are weird, eh?)

My dentist has been complimenting me on how much cleaner my teeth are at regular visits since I started this. Also, my electric toothbrush is the $12 pharmacy brand, apparently really upped my game, and has lasted like... forever? So.

I have always hated the feeling of stuff rubbing on my teeth, but sadly that's actually how you have to clean them, so I struggle with this sometimes. I can handle mouthwash more often, so I always have that, but I do try to talk myself into brushing as often as possible.

Miho Ichise "The Last Sunbathing of the Day"

The cats shadow is cast the opposite direction of the trees shadows and that makes me uneasy

this entry in a ‘what would happen if the internet went down tomorrow’ contest has been making me laugh since 2009