raisinbran20 asked

Are you often amazed at how engineers can design roads, bridges, ports, buildings, etc. that perform so poorly in the real world?

The Dames Point bridge is Jacksonville's tallest, soaring 175 feet above the waters of the St. Johns River. But is it high enough to grow the city's nearly 1-year-old cruise industry? Sure, the wave of the future in cruise ship design is bigger and taller, with many of those vessels being unable to fit below the Dames Point. Yet for ports with strong enough demand, cruise lines have a history of continuing to find ships that fit -- even if takes a bit of maritime surgery. The looming conflict between luxury liners and the Dames Point was notably illustrated last spring, when Carnival Cruise Lines' Miracle cleared the bridge by about 5 feet. And, while it's brand new, the Miracle is only mid-sized among the latest cruise ships. Next generations of Carnival ships will almost assuredly be larger, said Terry Thornton, vice president in charge of ship deployment for Carnival, one of North America's biggest cruise brands. From now on, the Miami-based company's ships will at least be equal in size to its current Conquest class of ships, giants that measure in at 110,000 tons and 208 feet in height: 33 feet too tall for the Dames Point. Supersizing the liners leaves plenty of room to pack in amenities like bigger spas and casinos -- and nearly 3,000 passengers to enjoy it all. As older ships are phased out of service and more-massive ships ordered, a smaller population of ships will be able to call on Jacksonville. Already, only seven of the company's 21 ships can squeeze below the bridge. Based on strong bookings since Carnival began its Jacksonville service in February, Thornton recommended that the Port Authority take action.

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