Posted on 07/17/2006 12:09:58 AM PDT by Panerai
Wouldn't you hat e to be the guy under the cement tiles doing a "pull Test".
After they pull your smashed corpse out from under the 30 ton piece of concrete they mark on their clip board, "FAILED".
I don't read this as the Epoxy inately failed, so far it seems some bolts weren't epoxied at all, and others the load placed on them was far more than the epoxy was designed to or able to hold.
Now whether this was a design failure (IE engineers screwed up the design and miscalcualted loads and such) or a construction failure (IE corrupt contractors cut corners or others ordered less materials to be able to pocket cash) remains to be seen.
I'd put more money on the latter than the former... I don't see how you wind up with one bolt, let alone multiple that didn't even have Epoxy on them being a design problem....
They never would have built this thing in Cali... would have gone with a suspension or pontoon bridge to cross the bay, not a tunnel... and definately would not have burried a highway, particularly just for estetical reasons.
LOL. I don't think it works that way. I think the pull test would have been on the bolts before they hung the tiles.
Still LOL!!!!!
Man is destined to forever underestimate gravity.
Before you hang the tiles??? What are you talking about?
If you test they after you hang the tiles, then you get to take the tiles down and then replace them. That means more overtime, police details, etc...
Never kill the job!
Tensile and shear testing is commonly done on a stress to failure platform; once the average limits are found the design is changed to allow a working strength cushion; in some cases, periodic replacement might be required if no fail-safe design can be assured.
"Look for
the union label
when you are buying
that coat, dress or tunnel...."
What is often overlooked on the "list of blame" is that that Boston is the birthplace of the modern "project labor agreement"
http://www.plafacts.org/index.html
actually they often just drove around the block and brought the old concrete back but charged them for a new load and the 'old load'
and as far as the epoxy bolts they work much better on a wall where the weight of the panels would push down on the bolt instead of hanging from the ceiling where the bolt could be pulled straight out of the hole.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/04/national/main1586157.shtml
Arrests For Big Dig Concrete Fraud
FBI Says Company Sold Substandard Material For Boston Tunnel Project
BOSTON, May 4, 2006
(AP / CBS)
(AP) Six men who worked for the Big Dig's largest concrete supplier were arrested Thursday on federal charges they falsified records to hide the poor quality of concrete delivered to the massive highway project.
The six, all current or former employees of Aggregate Industries, are named in a 135-count indictment on charges including making false statements, mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government between 1996 and August 2005.
The indictment charges the men with recycling concrete that was too old, and in some cases double-billing for the loads. The company was paid $105 million for 135,000 truckloads of concrete, and at least 5,000 of those truckloads did not meet specifications, according to the indictment.
The men were released on $100,000 unsecured bond each after making initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Boston.
According to the indictment, the faulty concrete was poured into walls and roof slabs in the Interstate 93 tunnel, parts of the Interstate 90 tunnel and the sea walls of the Fort Point Channel, among other places.
Incredible. Now they can add manslaughter to the charges
Unions did not make the faulty design. A large corporation did.
bump
From this Mar. '06 link:
Attorney general OKs gag order on Big Dig leak probe
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly has signed a five-year gag order on data related to the investigation into Boston’s leaky Big Dig project.
The problem? The gag order is essentially against himself.
The Boston Herald reported that the five-year contract requires any information released to the public regarding the investigation be approved by Reilly, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinkerhoff.
Critics of the agreement argue that it is unfair because Bechtel is the company whose work on the Big Dig is under investigation, which means Reilly can’t say anything without their permission.
“I’ve never heard of a state attorney general voluntarily gagging himself,” Eric Fehmstrom, spokesman for Gov. Mitt Romney, told the Herald. “What Tom Reilly has done is to delegate to Bechtel and the Turnpike Authority the power to determine what he can say, when he says it or even if he says anything at all."
Former turnpike board member and gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos told the Herald that “there is no legitimate reason to enter into an agreement that covers up the condition of a tunnel and the costs to repair it."
Meanwhile, The Boston Globe reports that the investigation is looking into the possibility that the steel girders used in the roof of the tunnels are shrinking in cold weather, which is stretching a layer of waterproofing that may be allowing the water to seep in.
Engineers have put sensors into the roof to monitor what is happening. If it turns out that Bechtel failed to plan for cold temperatures, The Globe reported, it may give the state the ammunition it needs to go after the contractor.
However, there is some doubt as to what, if any, data from those tests will be made public, thanks to the confidentiality agreement. Stephanie Lovell, first assistant attorney general, told The Globe that the data would not be kept from the public indefinitely, though she did not say when it might be released.
No I'm not. My post was not nasty. On this thread, rightly or wrongly, workers are being castigated. I was only pointing that this is one thing that was not their doing. No insult was intended or given.
pointing - S/B - pointing out
This thing is so deep they'll never get to the bottom of it.
People know what's going on. Using terms loosely around here is poetic license. Half my double major was English. I got over it, so you can. Remember, thinking hard enough to be extra nice is important when you don't know who you're talking to.
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