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OwnerRichard Steven Adler, Risto Salo +1inventors
InventorsRichard Steven Adler, Risto Salo, Charles Evans
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A rapidly constructed floating bridge for emergency deployment to minimize the time required to restore vehicular traffic where a structure crossing over a waterway has been rendered unusable or unsafe due to natural forces or acts of terrorism. The bridge is modular in nature and may be constructed from parts, including assemblies and/or subassemblies, that can be delivered to a staging area from which the bridge is assembled and deployed. The floating bridge can also be constructed as a temporary detour floating bridge at a location where a permanent structure is being repaired, removed or replaced by a new structure. The bridge is also a low cost option for a new location where a useful life of 25 to 30 years is required. The bridge may be continuous without a span that opens or may include one or more spans that pivot to open and provide a navigation channel, and/or the bridge may include an elevated span at a shore side to provide a navigation channel below the elevated span.
A floating bridge for rapid deployment at a water crossing for carrying traffic between a first shore and a second shore, the bridge comprising:
A plurality of connected floating bridge spans comprising:
A pontoon for a floating structure, the pontoon comprising a first end, a second end, opposed sides, a top and a bottom, which are connected together to form a hollow, water-tight structure, wherein:
A pontoon structure for a floating structure, the pontoon structure comprising a plurality of pontoons each of which comprises a first end, a second end, opposed sides, a top and a bottom, which are connected together to form a hollow, water-tight structure, wherein, for each pontoon:
A pontoon for a floating structure, the pontoon comprising:
A staging area from which a floating bridge can be rapidly deployed, the floating bridge comprising a plurality of floating spans constructed of attached pontoons, the staging area comprising:
A floating bridge comprising a plurality of floating spans two of which are pivotally connected for pivoting horizontally on the water and an anchor system attached at least to the pivoting spans, the anchor system comprising a plurality of anchor elements engaging water bottom, at least one for each side of a span, a cable attached to each anchor element at one end, a winch carried by the span for each side of the span, each cable being connected at an opposite end to a winch, the cables being positioned so that operation of a selected winch or winches acts to pivot the span.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.