Most bridges are compromises: Cars want to speed low and straight across the water, but but boats want to pass under them. So we wind up with either tall bridges (expensive) or moveable bridges (clunky and awkward). But now a Dutch engineering firm has come up with a radical solution that doesn’t involve the bridge—instead, it lowers the water 26 feet to let ships safely pass.
The tilting lock is the brainchild of Royal HaskoningDHV, one of the world’s largest engineering consulting firms. Ordinary, a lock raises or lowers a boat to let pass between two bodies of water of different heights, such as a lake to an ocean. Here, the lock tilts to artificially and temporarily lower the water level, letting a tall sailboat fit under even a low bridge. Solar panels will power the whole thing.
via Gizmodo
