Where the self-driving car meets the uncontrolled railway crossing.
950 tons on a single 174 foot span.
A concrete ROOF.
5.5 tons of dead weight per linear foot.
For a pedestrian walkway.
The really, really fancy icing on the cake? This company prides itself on how many women they hire, saying that it's a big step towards gender equality.
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The article mentions that one of the companies involved with the bridge project has been sued for hiring unsuitable employees. Even worse is that one of that firm's executives said that her main priority was to make that the bridges she builds look nice.
I'm a professional engineer and I'm registered in 3 provinces. Each of the governing associations has a code of ethics and in each of them, the first clause is that the welfare of the public is first and foremost.
Someone's going to end up in front of a professional disciplinary committee because of it. Any bets that the incident will be blamed on toxic masculinity or white privilege?
Reminds me of a conversation on Fox the other day re: Huff Po being so proud of hiring all these diverse people... And someone remarked “ who would you want flying your airplane”? The most diverse or the most qualified”?
Idiots are in charge of the acquisition process all over the planet. It looks like money was no object in this case. And they tried to make a tensioned box girder without the box and not enough margin in the specs of the cables.
One more step towards the total gender equality. The cost: 4 lives.
I thought six lives lost, possibly more, as well as the injured.
No doubt there will be law suits.
Idiots are in charge of the acquisition process all over the planet.
Indeed. The bridge collapse occurred one day short of the 40th anniversary of the grounding of the Amoco Cadiz off the coast of Brittany.
I read a book on the subject a number of years ago. The ship was a mishap in the making. For one thing, there was no redundancy in the hydraulic system for the steering. Another, as I recall, was that the safety factor was set at a bare minimum. Those design decisions were made in order to save money.
The result was that on the day in question, the ship encountered heavy seas as it was nearing its destination. The hydraulics simply couldn't handle the force on the rudder created by the currents. The fluid line ruptured, spraying oil all over the place, and the ship lost its steering and began drifting to an off-shore reef.
Adding to the mishap was the company's protocol in dealing with such matters. A tug had been dispatched and was waiting for permission from either the company or the ship's master to tow the tanker back from the reef. The master didn't have the authority as decisions about such things could only be made through head office several time zones away. The company knew that as soon as a tow line was connected to the ship, it would have to pay salvage charges and it didn't want to be liable for them.
Meanwhile, the ship drifted towards the shore, ran aground onto the reef, and the tanks containing the oil were ruptured. The subsequent oil spill became the largest one in history, and was surpassed by the well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico about a year and a half later, as well as what happened when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989.
For about 11 years, among other responsibilities I was in charge of maintenance and replacements of bridges of a large logging operation's roads and a logging railroad. I could have had a simple steel girder span bridge on steel piling abutments designed and built over that span for around $300,000. and that would have been capable of loading for a railroad rather than pedestrians. A light crane could have launched the girders from the center of the highway in a couple of hours. Accounting for inflation over the last 20 years and assuming a light steel design for pedestrian loading (almost nothing), it should still have cost a small fraction of what they paid for a disaster. That wasn't a bridge, that was a monument to stupidity.
The collapse reminds me of another earlier failure. In 1981, an overhead walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City collapsed while a dance was being held. More than 100 people were killed.
The cause was that a connection allowing the walkway to be suspended had been improperly designed.
Minority owned and women run (I understand the owners are male, but the managers are female, even a lot of hardhats), what can possibly go wrong? Now twice in a short time we have witnessed in Florida lives sacrificed on the altar of equality of result, rather than equality of opportunity. (Less miscreants in school are suspended or expelled, and more incompetents are hired.)
It is a friggin' PEDESTRIAN bridge. How much load will it bear?
Also, the Chinese have built large span bridges with no central support for over a thousand years. (The oldest existing one was built in 605 A.D.) You will notice that they are arched substantially at the middle. This apparently relieves the problem mentioned in the first linked article. That technique is still used, even though the arch is now used to support the straight roadway.
https://www.google.com/search?q=chinese+arched+bridges&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
For a view of a traditional arched bridge that looks like it is at least as long as the one that collapsed, and supports two rows of shops on the bridge, click on the following, which gives a scrolling panoramic view of the river. Stop it when it gets to the bridge.
http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh96/orientation/flash_4/index.html
I mean, it ain't even new technology.
"Hyatt Regency in Kansas City collapsed" Was that the one designed by a Canadian Engineering Firm??
100% blumpf's fault. If he didn't take NRA money Kone of this would have happened. It was her turn.
P.S. I found this bridge on the web. It is 51 m long. It was built in 595 A.D., more than 1400 years ago, and is a lasting span not only of utility but beauty.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20161021/f8bc126d97c41973f01305.jpg
Julius Caesar Crossing the Rhine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNPnBVHSeZc
Caesar's Bridge across the Rhine, the first two bridges to cross the Rhine River on record, were built by Julius Caesar and his legionaries during the Gallic War in 55 BC and 53 BC. Strategically successful, they are also considered masterpieces of military engineering.[1]
The length of the bridge has been estimated to be 400 m (1,300 ft), and its width 7 to 9 m (23 to 30 ft). The depth of the river can reach up to 9.1 m (30 ft).
The construction of this bridge showed that Julius Caesar, and Rome, could go anywhere, if only for a few days. Since he had over 40,000 soldiers at his disposal, they built the first bridge in only 10 days using local lumber.
SO WHAT PASSES FOR ENGINEERING IN FLORIDA THESE DAYS?
Cheers
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1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group 'True North'
Here’s dash cam footage of the collapse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucflj-MsJBI
"Müller-Breslau Matters Most"
Crap. Now BLM folks will get all whiny again.
Beam Test...watch beam failure in slow-motion! U of T
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ycbDCnoO8M
So the Romans can put up a foot soldier bridge in 10 days in 53 BC, but modern Floridian's can't erect pre-stressed box beams with all the latest in materials sciences and computer modelling in 2018 AD and make an equivalent FOOT BRIDGE!!
mala factorum
disce quasi semper victurus vive quasi cras moriturus
(learn as if you're always going to live; live as if tomorrow you're going to die)
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group 'True North'
(learn as if you're always going to live; live as if tomorrow you're going to die)
Notice that cam footage.
It looks as though one of the vehicles ran through the caution stoplight just before the bridge collapsed.
My wonderful wife, fantastic woman, obeys all road signs and will almost slide to stop under the caution light, I keep telling her that someday we are going to get killed.
I played the footage for her.
'I know, I know, I am a white male chauvinists pig, but I am alive and still rooting white male chauvinists pig.'
Wow. Look at where it collapsed; right near where the span is almost completed and right below where the crane is working.
If this were strictly an engineering issue, one would think the bridge would be most vulnerable in the middle of the span where maximum forces/leverage are exerted.
Youtube frame advance using period key.
Looks like everyone who immediately ran toward the bridge was male.
Let’s have a look at this.
Herr Müller-Breslau could talk Chinese here or be a Martian, don’t understand none of the equations.
No doubt there are those here that do understand the mathematical gymnastics.
There also are women that can design stuff, though they should not be chosen for one simple reason that they are women, they should be chosen because they are proven to excel in their profession.
And that is the problem, current culture of hate for everything male and specifically for certain shade of male.
Yeah, politics have taken over engineering, this is what you get.
Gonna happen more often just watch.
Crowd sourced cause.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtiTm2dKLgU
It was a pedestrian bridge. Not an engineer but shouldn't they have been able to produce a simple truss structure with a little more steel and a lot less concrete? A single pier in the middle would have solved the issue. A little more over-engineering please. And when you're mucking with structural integrity stop the effing traffic.
Yeah, politics have taken over engineering, this is what you get.
Much of this in Canada came as a result of the Marc Lepine/Gamil Gharbi incident in 1989. Certain groups pounced upon it as proof of toxic masculinity and began pushing to "feminize" engineering. Many in the profession who complied.
It's gone so far now that at least 2 provinces I know of have "30-30" initiatives. The objective is that, by 2030, at least 30% of the engineers are women.
Somehow, I don't think this mishap will change this policy.
As en electrical engineer I can't bother figuring out McGee's equations. But he makes a prediction:
"Thus, the bridge’s failure collapse mechanism occurred around the center"
But if you watch the slow-motion video of the collapse it clearly fractures near one end where they are working on the bridge with the crane. Nowhere near the center. Coincidence ? I don't think so.
Old white guys make plenty of mistakes too - no women required. As my professor at Pitt used to ask us: The bridge collapsed - do you want partial credit ?
V1 CAPTCHA - the end is near . Repent !
Trust me, I'm an engineer !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp8hvyjZWHs
But - but - but - diversity is our strength! I know this because our Dear Leader Little Potato keeps repeating it, so it must be true!
We don't have near enough facts to be pointing fingers at 'gender bias' as even influencing the cause.
First of all, my impression was that this bridge was an attempt at a new method of manufacturing for it's size. Built off-site and requiring a few more weeks of construction once it was placed, suspension cables, etc, still needed to be added. Any engineering deficiencies aside, the road below should NEVER have been opened until the bridge was COMPLETELY finished.
But, of course, that would have greatly negated the advantage that this company was offering in manufacturing bridges off-site. IMO, whoever allowed traffic to pass directly under an 'active experimental construction site' is the one ultimately responsible for these deaths.
It's the 21st century. Why didn't they build it out of carbon fibre? Or steel? The Firth of Forth bridge is still in use and the Eiffel Tower is still standing.
And if you look closely at the photographs coming from the event you'll notice a pedestrian crosswalk at the traffic signals not 100 feet away. A regular crossing at the signal wasn't enough. They had to build at $14 million bridge.
Hey, it’s all about making an ATTRACTIVE bridge that’s pleasing to the eye, it has to be ARTISTIC, so that the designers, and client, can win awards for them.
Look at Victoria’s bridge fiasco, replacing the old Blue Bridge. Two years over schedule, 100% over budget, but almost all agreed it was badly underestimated at the time it was initially approved.
But it’s an artsy, modern design, that was the most important factor for Victoria’s FAR left Silly Council. Seems that mindset disease has spread far and wide.
Form over function...quite popular these days, from presidents down to dog shows.
Mat 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
If one looks at pictures and drawings of older engineering works, those designs were not only functional but there was also a certain ornate artistry to what was built.
Examples of that are the Iron Bridge across the River Severn in England or just about anything that Isambard Kingdom Brunel built.
That was a construction error, not engineering error. A construction foreman did not hang the walkways per plan, which called for long continuous steel vertical rods hanging all walkways, the foreman used a different rod for each walkway and just put nuts on threads under each level. Therefore each level had a set of rods and nuts suppporting that level and another set of rods and nuts supporting all levels under.
'diverse' LOL!!
as in providing a 'diverse' number of ways of crashing into the ground, other planes, end of the runway etc etc.
The BASCULE style Blue Bridge could have been saved, and rehabbed, but for three things.
-Poor maintenance by the city over a number of years. Basic repainting and rivet replacement was not thorough enough. Makes one wonder if this was deliberately neglected, to build a new monument to themselves.
-poor maintenance notwithstanding, the bridge required millions to repair, which was deemed "too expensive". This plays into the grossly underestimated cost of a new fancy artsy bridge.
-BICYCLES. The road surface of the BB was steel grate, and poor old bike riders had a rough ride. Oh the horror, so a new bridge was needed. For more than $100 MILLION
This is what living in a loony lefty universe is like. I would like to say that the current short-haired, bike freak, LGBTABCD mayor will be defeated in this election coming up, but fear that another lefty minion will replace her, every bit as bad or worse (Ben Isitt, a true Marxist). Victoria is full of renters, retired government employees, SJWs, and millenials who have full entitlement syndrome.
I live in the region, but not in the city. Still, the world knows this area as Victoria, and the mayor of that city always is deemed the spokesperson for the region, no matter how nutty, or farleft whacko, like Lisa SJW is.
A triumph of defeating the patriarchy! STEM has always been a tool of the patriarchy, so this bridge was a triumph of gender studies bridge building.
speak for your self. As a supervisor for a few installations, I do not need all the paper facts to see some glaring flaws, in both design and installation. I'v argued with more than one "engineer" (PHD's) and been correct. They just don't show their heads after some of their stupidity
Evidently, the firm forgot the message of poems such as The Sons of Martha and The Hymn of Breaking Strain, both written by that raving misogynist and toxic male Rudyard Kipling.
Thanks for that dash cam footage, it clearly shows workers near the left support tower and crane where the workers were tightening the post tension cable system on the concrete truss members.
Question: Why didn't they use elegant STEEL truss members; which has better allowable shear and compression forces?
I read somewhere, don't know where now fer sure, that there was a report of some concrete defects two days before installation.
If there was any honey combing in the support columns or truss members and then post tension cable force applied; that would be enough to fail one of the truss members. This would explain the collapse beginning where the workers were applying the post tension cable system force.
Full disclosure: my brother works with Dwyidag installing post tension cable systems. Part of his job is to do slump testing to ensure concrete cures properly to the desired strength...
https://www.dywidag-systems.com/
The truss design is dubious, but quality control may also be a factor...
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group 'True North'
Another viewpoint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioC61QW7SHQ
Was this supposed to be a suspension bridge that was unsupported during construction?
Only a moron would have been doing any kind of stress test without blocking off traffic.
Not to worry. This episode will disappear from the media and in the coming years perhaps a small article will appear in an engineering publication about some technical issue that couldn't have been known or avoided caused the accident.
My brother is a retired structural engineer and he's of the opinion that no engineer would have approved any of the scenario that caused the deaths of innocent people, who ever gave the okay, couldn't have possibly known the risks of what he/she was doing.
"The truss design is dubious"
The trusses are screwy because they line up with the tower that was to be built to support the whole damn think on cables.
Seems to me that diversicrats have acquired a certain comfort level with deaths and injuries as long as they meet their quotas. Broken eggs, omelet, and all that....
Nope the tower and suspension cable stuff was DECORATIVE BY DESIGN!
Miami Bridge Failure- preliminary analysis 17 March 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDDQLcp6iI&t=269s
see 5 min mark above
It just get's better by the minute...!
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group 'True North'
I am so old that I remember when you build the suspension first and then hung the roadway.
Scar. The bridge upon completion was to be a cable stay structure, supported from a yet to be built tower near the collapse end. I can’t understand what they were trying to do there. It was clearly a self supporting truss until collapse. Why then later add what should be the main suppporting structure (the cable stays)?
No diverse as in Female, black, blind, gay...
Not a fan of diversity for its own sake, but there is no basis for assuming its the ladies' fault. Let's wait for NTSB to come up with some findings as to cause before we hang someone. And we will - someone will lose their livelihood over this, definitely face civil suits and maybe criminal ones as well.
This type of cable stayed design is handsome. FIGG designed the current Sunshine Skyway Bridge carrying I-275 south of Tampa/St Pete. Another is the Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge carrying I-93 north out of Boston. Don't think either of those used concrete cable staying though. Don't think either bridge was deployed quickly. (The old Sunshine Skyway Bridge was taken out by a 20000 ton freighter in a storm. 35 people died. Hope they put some massive foundations in the new one).
I am sure that it is going to end up being affirmative action hired engineers.
Woodporter is correct. This was to be a cable stay bridge structure. There is no mention of that in the article. The reason there was no mid span support is that they did not need one after the cable stays were installed.
Leave it up to some smart ass engineer who works in the aerospace industry to give us a lecture based on conjecture. A smart engineer would wait until the investigation is complete and the final report signed and sealed.
And RIMcMt also appears to be correct. There appears to be bending failure at a relatively short distance from the support. This is likely at the location where one of the stay cables would be connected. But this is conjecture as well.
The Hyatt Regency in Kansas City was a case of the steel fabricator changing the design of the connections supporting the walkways in order to simplify construction. The Design Engineers failed to recognize that the change could be dangerous when they reviewed the shop drawings.
There are hundreds if not thousands of ways that things can go wrong in engineering and construction.
I am surprised to read that they were load testing this bridge. You would not normally load test before the structure is complete, and you would make sure there was no traffic under the bridge at the same time. I think there has been some misinterpretation made by the press and the investigating engineer, Marco Rubio.