Posted on 03/16/2018 6:54:17 AM PDT by BenLurkin
One woman who barely avoided the deadly collapse said she saw the structure crumble "in front of me, and it fell on the cars that were waiting for the light to change."
"I was near the light. I was the first car that moved forward when it changed and I was near the bridge. It was fine, and all of a sudden, I saw it collapse from the left towards the middle," Suzy Bermudez told reporters Thursday
...
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted Thursday that the cables that suspended the bridge "had loosened & the engineering firm ordered that they be tightened. They were being tightened when it collapsed."
Renderings showed a tall, off-center tower with supporting cables attached to the walkway. When the bridge collapsed, the main tower had not yet been installed, and it was unclear what builders were using as temporary supports.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The company that build the bridge has a troubled history.
Xerxes was building high pontoon quality bridges to get across the Hellespont in 480 BC. The beautiful Anji bridge in China is 1500 years old and still in use for pedestrians.
The list goes on...
Basically, in today’s era, a bridge collapse is utterly inexcusable.
When the bridge collapsed, the main tower had not yet been installed, and it was unclear what builders were using as temporary supports.
“Hey guys! We still have this tower in the box. What are we supposed to do with it? Meh. It’ll be fine.”
lowest bidder gets it
In early reporting of this incident it was said that some kid got hit by a car so they decided to make the bridge.
It was built at an accelerated pace - obviously - and one of the issues with that is the cement is still curing. After nearly 60 years? I wouldn't have believed it, had I not spoken to the PM running a project on it.
The project? They were taking a slice out of the dam. Top-to-bottom, all 400-odd feet. The cut was roughly an inch thick. Would make room for expansion due to the curing.
Struck me as a massively bad idea to cut a hole in an active dam, but here they were doing it. I sat there for an afternoon, watching a crew of workers on scaffolding and ropes, scampering across the face of the dam. Wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes.
Haven't read where it ruptured, and like I said, it's been about 20 years, so I'd think that if something was going to happen, it would have by now....
“Huh? What cables? Is he talking about cables that were supposed to come from a tower and support the bridge, or other cables?”
There are cables in the concrete to put additional stress on it, to help it stay in compression. Look up pre-stressed concrete.
Trump’s Fault.
Excellent point, and a good reason for not having the bridge there at all.
I could easily be wrong, but gathered from the (very ambiguous) online pics, that the “mast” intended to hold up the bridge was going to be slap dab in the middle of the traffic lanes. Was it actually meant to be off to one side? Yikes. With no balancing the load from the other side, the mast would have to be danged robust, yet they were holding the bridge up with cranes? I’d would love to see actual plans and elevations of this thing.
The concrete in Hoover Dam is so thick it would have taken 125 years for it to cure naturally. They installed 585 miles of 1 inch pipe in the concrete to remove the heat from the exothermic curing reaction. That sped up the curing a lot.
From the pic and info at your link I see that I misperceived the design as a whole. The collapsed part appears to be only about a half or two-thirds of the final bridge. Another large section was to continue over the canal visible at the left of the pic. That would at least provide some balance.
The article says that the university was promoting itself as a center for advanced, “accelerated” bridge design. Well they sure showed what they can do.
OK, that’s totally fake...not one of the automatons is texting ;)
No. Highest donor gets the contract.
(This is Obama-era 2009 "continuing error" government money into a democrat congressional district in a democrat city and a democrat county for a democrat (liberal/minority) university built by a democrat donor construction firm and designed by a democrat-donor design firm. )
Good sarcasm can be measured on how effective it is.
You got me on that one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.