David Brethel

Final Design and Development

Philosophy:

I started with a uniform truss bridge and began to question how to make my design work so that a 30 foot by 40 foot object may pass through the span. I chose to make the roadbed lift using a hinge and pulleys. This required I place a hinge at the pivot point of the road and make the truss structure higher to place the pulleys in a location where they could lift the roadbed. The second part of the transformation involves retracting the lower truss rails using a motor and gears. This required I make the truss rails thicker to accommodate the new distribution of loads as well as the placement of the gears along a track attached to the rails under the structure. Finally a observation deck and two story living quarters were added to the bridge altering the design yet again. To support the loads of the observation deck I extended the truss along the top and placed four curved members in the corners. 

Final Design:

3D Perspective Views

Plan View

Elevations

Animations