Crossing the Humber Bridge

[Sterlo]

On a serious note, watch out for the winds blowing down the Humber, they can be surprisingly strong on the bridge if you're not ready for them and knock you sideways. Take it steady as well, plenty of pedestrians about on the shared path, most of them won't move for you, they think they have the right to be there and not you.

 

[Pale Rider]

Here is a photo that you took of the rest of our little group just after that, before we headed for the bridge on the 2016 forum ride...

View attachment 542648

And the storm brewing in the distance....

View attachment 542649

It hit us on the north side and was so intense that drivers had to switch their headlights on to see where they were going!

Thanks Colin - I was thinking of those pics when I was making my contribution.

Fond memories, Carrie on tip toes, but who is the guy on the far right?

I recall entering the car park on the other side bone dry, and leaving it soaking wet.

Some of the biggest rain drops I've ever been under.

The road under the bridge we ride through after leaving the car park was already flooded - that must have happened in literally a couple of minutes.

The next mile or two was one of the times when I proved to be useful as an ebiker.

I found myself steadily whirring away at the front into the pouring rain as the rest of the ride sheltered behind me.

Everyone also fell silent - rain that heavy saps the spirit, but at least it wasn't cold.

The Strava graphs in this thread really tell the story of the gradient.

The OP has been well served by everyone.

 

[ColinJ]

Fond memories, Carrie on tip toes...

Yes, little Carrie stretching up but still dwarfed by much bigger men!

... but who is the guy on the far right?

That is @busdennis, who used to organise the Humber Bridge ride before me. I haven't spotted him on the forum for quite a while but I just checked and he did visit in June.

 

[Gixxerman]

There is a cycle path on both sides. However, they sometimes close one side or the other. I have no idea the criterion they use to decide when and what side needs to be closed. It might be linked to the wind direction and speed. You need to take care riding over it as there is an abundance of pedestrians wandering about aimlessly.
I can actually recount a funny story regarding the bridge. Many years ago I had a Yamaha RD350LC F1. It suffered piston seizure on the bridge. So I walked over to the control room. They allowed me to leave it in their staff car park and I'd pick it up later. I got my brother to pick me up. We hired a van and returned the next day to pick up the bike. Being a skinflint, I decided to walk over the bridge and push the bike back to save the tolls. I told the chap in the control room that I intended to push the bike over the bridge as it was broken down. I was told that I couldn't push the bike on the road as it would be causing an obstruction. I agreed and told him that that was never my intention, and I was intending to push it on the footpath. I was then told that I couldn't push it on the footpath either as it was a motor vehicle. I'm now confused. I asked him how do I get in back across the bridge then? He then asked why I just didn't ride it? I explained again, that I couldn't as it was broken down. "Oh", he says, "Ok you can push it on the footpath as long as you don't ride it". I can't ride it, it's broken! If I could ride it, I wouldn't be picking the bloody thing up in a van! Arrghhh!

 

[Supersuperleeds]

If you need a cafe there is one on the south side petty much bank on the shoreline (right hand side of the bridge as you face the river)

 

[Supersuperleeds]

From the 2018 forum ride

 

[Landsurfer]

BITD I used to take my bike over on the ferry

Beyond Midlife then ....

 

[Sterlo]

BITD I used to take my bike over on the ferry

I certainly remember the Tattershall Castle and the Wingfield Castle, getting off at New Holland on the dodgy wooden pier that seemed to go on for miles.

 

[RichardB]

Probably not helpful, but I lived close to the N end of the bridge while they were building it, and then used to commute across it every day on a motorbike. It was a curious experience. The road deck is built with an aerofoil section, a bit like an aeroplane wing, to help it deal with high winds (apparently it is designed to survive 120 mph gusts). The effect of that is the in the middle of the bridge, away from the towers, the flow of air in a high wind is virtually laminar, i.e. hardly any turbulence. You could lean to the left and ride across at 45 deg to the vertical, supported entirely on the wind. You needed your wits about you when you got to the towers, though, as the effect stopped dead there. As a piece of engineering, I think it is a thing of real beauty. I don't go there often now, but I remember the sight of the curve of the bridge as you approached from the South after dark was mesmerising.

 

[ColinJ]

The road deck is built with an aerofoil section, a bit like an aeroplane wing, to help it deal with high winds (apparently it is designed to survive 120 mph gusts).

After the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsed, engineers realised that the aerodynamics of bridges is actually quite important! This is what that badly designed bridge did in a 40 mph wind...

Suspension bridges like the Humber bridge are now designed so the wind flow over them pushes the bridge deck down and increases the tension in the cables, thus making them stable and strong.

 

[Pale Rider]

I read somewhere the towers of the bridge are angled inwards a few degrees to account for the curvature of the earth.

What I don't know if that's just so they appear vertical or whether they have to be built that way for the bridge to be stable and strong.

Either way, it's all clever stuff.

 

[Tom B]

Did it a 10 days ago with the little lad. The east side path is currently closed but you can go both ways on the west.

Apparently quite common for one side or the other to be closed.

I went from Barton to Hessle then to Hull then to Hornsea via the cycle paths and back.

 

[ColinJ]

I read somewhere the towers of the bridge are angled inwards a few degrees to account for the curvature of the earth.

What I don't know if that's just so they appear vertical or whether they have to be built that way for the bridge to be stable and strong.

Nah, simple geometry, innit!

I just did a very approximate calculation on the back of a virtual fag packet... The radius of the Earth is about 6,370 km. The towers on the bridge are about 155 m high and the towers are about 1.4 km apart at the waterline. I'm sure that the towers are actually perpendicular to the ground***. The separation of the tops of the towers will therefore be ~= (6370.155/6370)x1.4 km = 1.0000243 x 1400 m = 1400.034, or about 34 mm further apart than the feet of the towers.
There is no way that you would see that 3.4 cm difference!

Hmm, Wikipedia has it as 36 mm - I'm happy with that, given how rough my calculation was!







*** A structural engineer will probably now post that the towers are indeed angled, and the reason for that is...

 

[Supersuperleeds]

The towers are angled ever so slightly. A labourer lent against one before the concrete had fully set and moved it. They then had to do the other to satisfy the main engineers OCD.

 

[Gixxerman]

Nah, simple geometry, innit!

Absolute nonsense. The Earth is flat, I have seen the evidence on youtube. In other news, masks don't work, coronavirus is a hoax, we live under a dome, the moon creates it's own light....