Posted on 09/19/2018 8:36:34 AM PDT by Gamecock
A rural politician in eastern Saskatchewan says he’s at a loss to explain why a newly built bridge collapsed just hours after opening.
But by 4:30 p.m. the same day, part of bridge deck had collapsed into the Swan River below.
“The company did not build a bridge to fall over. We sure didn’t buy a bridge to fall over,” Hicks said. “Nobody expected this.”
He received a call from the fire department soon after saying that the bridge went down.
Hicks suspects there may have been something under the bridge that let go which caused the collapse. He said he’s not blaming anyone, because he doesn’t know what happened.
The previous bridge had been in place for more than 50 years and Hicks estimates that 50 to 60 cars pass over it each day.
The bridge is mostly used by farmers, so Hicks said the municipality wanted the bridge completed in time for harvest.
Hicks, who has been the reeve for two years, said the bridge was built to Canadian standards and the municipality has been told it won’t be on the hook for the cost of repairs.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
Nope, nobody’s ever heard of checking the soil type, depth and bedrock under the foundation of a future bridge support, unheard of. /s
https://www.reddit.com/r/saskatchewan/comments/9gf3yb/bridge_in_rural_saskatchewan_collapses_hours/
Humorous comments on “Act of God” excuse
Force Ten from Saskatchewan! They detonated the beaver dam upstream.
It does look that way ... but look at the support posts for the railing, they still appear vertical or nearly so. The railing also still appears to be attached. If their footing on land was like the one on the far side it doesn’t look like it should be enough to hold onto the rail post and then the rail post wrench all the support posts on the span that way.
They may have used some serious through bolts but then we’ve got what may be a unremarkable concrete post yanking all that well secured wood rather than giving way itself.
To my eye the right supports look like in their current position that they’d not be under the center span at all. The supporting horizontal beam that the sections would sit on is also pretty thin.
So here’s a thought, one end of the bridge is higher than the other but rather than build it up on the low side side do the bridge was level all the way across they had the near section ramp up. Every time a vehicle passed over it that imparted a non-vertical load and if they hit the change on grade fast enough the bridge may have shook.
If the foundation wasn’t secured adequately to the longitudinal load over time that could bounce the this supports out from under the span and then only the connecting bolts between spans are there, taking the whole weight. Those could fail under the transverse deadweight.
Wow. That’s a new bridge? That is as shoddy a design and construction effort as I’ve ever seen.
I would like to hear the names of the engineers.
Simply knowing the names might explain everything
Since it was a concrete decked bridge tne the concern would have been with theexisting steel pilings. They probably jacked up the bridge, removed the old pilings, and bolted the new ones onto co ncrete footings.
It could be the result of the footings lifting/shifting after removing the bridge load and no one took that into account during the design of the retrofit.
There is a bridge I drive over every day. It was built maybe 12-15 years ago on a Turnpike. They misjudged the piling sink by about 8 inches and it’s like a series of Motocross Whoop-Dee-Doo’s up and down up and down. They call it the rollercoaster highway.
Is that balssa wood covered with tissue?
Two-thirds of it looks fine :-)
Is it my imagination,
or did the left pylon supports “settle”?
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Looks like both piers settled. Bridge roadways are usually arched up. This roadway slumps down.
Beavers.
> did the left pylon supports “settle”?
I see that too, but the reflections of the pylons in the water would show the angle if that were the case.
I surmise it’s just an artifact of lens distortion.
It looks really old, doesn’t it?
Maybe the contractor snookered them...he just polished the old bridge a bit and held a “Grand Opening” ceremony.
LOLOL!!
“After the collapse, a box of leftover parts was found stashed behind a tree near the bridge, along with an unused set of instructions.”
It looks like the same problem with this Canadian bridge. The central tower and supporting cables are missing there, as well.
Low bid.
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