Engineers - again.

Engineer's Eye this evening was all about the Boyne Bridge, that impressive cable-stayed bridge (viaduct) which carries the M1 motorway over the Boyne river on the way up from Dublin to Belfast and environs. Another interesting programme after last weeks, but I felt that the engineer discussing his work this week didn't have the same common language, if you like, that his counterpart did last week. That's not to criticize the programme, only that, well, he was inclined to use technical terms and jargon which might not have been known to a non-engineer. Uh oh, I'm going to get in trouble for being patronising, amn't I?

Here's a very informative paper on the bridge. It's a pdf file, so might take a while to load up.

I have forgotten what else I wanted to mention this evening....

I must upload some piccies of the recent Italian excursion - more later. I have just remembered something.

This blog made it to no.1 on a google search! What for, I hear you ask. Well, nch, rugby and typeface. Here's the proof!

Wow, Engineering in the Public Eye?

Naturally, you all appreciate engineering when you drive along our roads, or drink water from the tap, or enjoy protection from the elements in a nice building or flush the loo....no, of course we don't. It's all taken for granted. Which is exactly why it's done - so that people can take it for granted, use it every day and live lives as safe, convenient, and healthy as possible.

But I wanted to mention a very interesting programme this evening on rte radio one, called the Engineer's eye. (It follows a previous 6-parter called the Architect's eye, but naturally, that wasn't interesting or important - oh don't mind me I'm just playing on the old Architect-Engineer rivalry, ha ha don't you know) . The programme is like an interview, between the presenter and an Engineer involved with the work under discussion - tonight it was flood relief works in Limerick.

[Caution, long sentence ahead] Under the spotlight were the multitude of conditions and issues that engineers have considered whilst designing the flood scheme - not just water flow conditions and levels, or protecting towns from flooding, but also how the works affect minutiae of day-to-day fish life as in how they lay their eggs in gravel, and how the modified hydraulics must ensure that the gravel in the bed is kept loose for this purpose. So naturally, I found it interesting - but maybe if you're not familiar with engineering work, you'll find it interesting? There are no "science bits", it's all very ordinary and followable - like much of engineering...uh oh, the secret's out.....[Hey Mr, how's your Young's Modulus? bad in-joke there]

You can download the podcast - yes, we have all the lingo here at prenderb - and get details on further programmes here.

Next week it's the Boyne Bridge on the M1......2000 on RTE Radio 1.

Oh and by the way, the Architect's eye programme was interesting.

Ah, Australia Day

Happy Australia day. The great thing about Australia day, is that you get AC/DC on the radio. Now that's music to go to work by.

Some observations. Well, 2 in fact.

Isn't it ironic when you're listening to your local radio station in the morning, on which taxi drivers announce the morning traffic jams and snarlups, and the taxi drivers tell everyone to "drive safely now"?

And isn't it a little bit, inhuman maybe, to think that a car overturned on the M50 yesterday morning, and in the news reports I've heard and read in regards to the horrific traffic that ensued, nobody mentioned whether somebody might have been hurt or not?

I've had no response. That's absolutely no response from our friends in Tullamore.

At least Eircom responded to my email. Not very constructively, and not since to my own response, but there you go.


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