Posted on 01/22/2017 12:41:14 PM PST by BenLurkin
A ruptured bridge truss, the bracing structure of beams below the surface, under the westbound lanes of the bridge left the heavily traveled bridge closed to traffic on Friday.
The fracture was discovered during a routine check of a painting project and the bridge, which handles roughly 42,000 vehicles a day, was shut down.
...
One official added that the fracture could have been caused by changing weather conditions, Philly.com reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
$800 billion in "stimulus" - why wasn't this bridge rebuilt?
SHOVEL READY BRIDGE !
They had low quality labor?
Becuase it went to supporting “Muslim feelings on the topic of ‘what’s a bridge’” and protests on the need to recognize, LGBLT achievements in bridge feelings.
If they had started in 2009, the new bridge would be complete by now.
Low quality leadership.
Good question.
I was just reading about the Delmarva pennisula.
Maybe now is the time to make it a state.
Give Wilmington area to Maryland (not PA).
What do Freepers, who know more about it than I do, think?
Huh? What does this bridge have to do with Delmarva?
Delaware.
Same general area if the world.
I don’t know a lot about the Delmarva Peninsula, except that it is pretty, somewhat rural, and pleasant. I vote to leave it the way it is.
Old Ben is no engineer, but that looks like a serious problem.
Come on! A little crazy glue, some elbow grease, good as new!
Seriously, though, it does appear that you could replace the gusset plates with longer ones, grabbing the intact portion of the beam, assuming you could winch it back into place. Something like this happened about ten years ago in Boston when a (Canadian) truck hit a vertical beam on a major traffic artery. They actually managed to save the bridge and it’s held up all these years. You would probably need thicker gusset plates, and on both sides, but it would be a lot cheaper and faster than a new bridge.
Order the gusset plates on Tuesday, put out a request for repair bids on Monday.
Globull warming strikes again!
This is the Penna / NJ Turnpike bridge near Tullytown PA, south of Trenton, NJ. Alternative route would be to follow I-295 in NJ (cross at Delaware) or Continue on I-95 and cross river above Trenton
This is why amatuers shouldn’t comment on such. What’s really needed here is some duct tape!
One article at philly.com said the severed truss was 14 inches.
I have a dumb question.
Whatever the cause of the failure, how do the engineers determine if the bridge’s other components are in the same “ready to snap” same condition?
From the picture, they have a big problem. That’s not due to weather. That excuse is brown and sticky due to where it was pulled out of. They have to determine why it failed before they can reopen the bridge. The findings may show a far greater problem in many areas. Fatigue, inadequate design, inferior steel (Chinese?) or some other cause needs to be determined first.
Testing like ultrasound and electro-resistance tests.
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