How High do we Build Bridges

[robh]

A lot of us know that when cruiseships are built and ready for final delivery depending what country the yard is in, they have to be carefully navigated through to the sea.
Planning and raising of tides and bridge locations are taken into account and some even have the ability to lower a communication mast.

Recently I read an article where major ports in the world that have bridges where ships sail under are now looking to the future and wondering how to deal with these newer ships being built and currently sailing.
In Vancouver's case , even allowing for low tide , it would not be able to handle some of these ships if they were put on the Alaska run and loss of cruise tourists would occur to ports without bridges.
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Lions+Gate+Bridge+height+could+hurt+city+cruise+gr owth+executive+says/6505327/story.html

In Quebec, some of the ships wait for low tide to get to Montreal but in all cases, one has to ensure enough draft exists for the ship to move and not hit either the bridge or the bottom.
Interesting new challenge , much like accomodating the Airbus A380 where we built runway extensions and new terminal extensions to handle but we cannot keep on building Bridges higher every 10 years.

[HawkeyeFLA]

Hmmm. I do know I have read some discussion where even after the widening of the Panama Canal, some ships like Oasis/Allure might not be able to go through because of the Bridge of the Americas. The big ships just have too much air draft.