ENGINEERING THE WORLD’S LONGEST FLOATING BRIDGES.
Western Washington is home to some of the longest floating bridges in the world. In 1983, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) commissioned Glosten to evaluate wind and wave forces for the new I-90 bridge design and two more Lake Washington bridges. The analysis of floating bridges presents a unique challenge because the wave loads and structural deformation interact. Glosten collaborated with local civil engineers to solve this complex problem by integrating hydrodynamic analysis, wave hindcasting, and stochastic analysis with structural analysis tools.