Trestle Down Part 2

 

1. And Micheal Moore’s silverware is to blame for him being an obese shit sack.  Silverware planted by the GOP.

   Posted by grayjohn       05/25/2013  at  04:17 PM  



2. See, told ya so. But they did manage to make the trains go a whopping 5 mph faster than before so that was worth the 800 million Washington got.Right!
   BTW,Down here in Trolleyland we have some ancient bridges that need work but the county lets the city buy more trolley cars and track to gum up the core even worse than before.They have Finally started to fix the old Sellwood bridge because it was ready to go plop if they let it alone.The bill for this little fix is Only going to be $299 Million. Pocket change these days it seems.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellwood_Bridge

   Posted by Rich K       05/25/2013  at  06:47 PM  



3. BTW Drew, can we assume this bridge was the victim of the “Lucky Shot” as to how it failed so quickly because of its simple design? Do most trusses inherently have a fail point that can’t be designed out?
   See, I am interested in this stuff because once upon a time I was studying to be an engineer but my math skills made that career a lost cause.I can still draft buildings and gizmo’s and shit even though my skills be on the rusty side after 40 years of neglect.

   Posted by Rich K       05/25/2013  at  07:22 PM  



4. I can’t answer that one Rich. I read a long news article that said how the bridge had been hit several times before - recently? - by overly tall loads, and the repairs needed were put on a To-Do list. So it may have been weakened significantly.

   OTOH, as well as I can understand things, the papers are reporting that the truck hit one of the overheads. that would be the sway braces that run across the bridge. they don’t carry the load at all; the triangular trusses on the sides do that job.

   But if the load caught a sway brace, bent it, and carried it along, conceivably it could rip out some of the top chord and one or more plates where the truss members connect. Think of them as the round hubs in a set of Tinker Toys. Rip one out, and the structure is fatally compromised. So there is no one magical spot; break the truss and the bridge will fall.

   “Simple design” is an apt term, although that simplicity is arrived at via intense calculation and experimentation. Bridges cost money, lots of money. And they all have limited carrying capacity, no matter how big or small. So a “complex design” that has redundant parts not only costs more, it adds no additional strength, AND it lowers the overall carrying capacity of the bridge, because the very first thing that any bridge has to support is itself. So the lightest, most minimal bridge is the best kind, which leads us to trusses designed around our friend Mr. Triangle ... assuming you build it for an expected load about double or triple what your needs are today. Because traffic density always increases, and as things age they get weaker.

   I’d like to see the investigation report for this. I’m thinking a couple dozen rivets or assembly bolts where compromised from previous impacts and weathering, and just sheared at the final impact. Which would break the Tinker Toy Truss right in half.

   Posted by Drew458       05/25/2013  at  10:17 PM  



5. Which all leads us back to WDOT spending money on the wrong things.And That is the most galling part of that asshat McDermotts comments.Typical chickenshit Pol who only know how to trash others and not build anything.  

   Posted by Rich K       05/25/2013  at  10:28 PM  



6. I’m surprised they aren’t blaming Eisenhower since he was president when that bridge was erected and he ~was~ a Republican.

   Posted by Doctor DETH       05/26/2013  at  12:41 AM  



7. Bush did it.

   Posted by grayjohn       05/26/2013  at  08:53 AM  



8. Just you wait - while DC, Ohio and Kentucky continue to fight - oops, sorry discuss as to who is going to bear the cost of the Brent Spence - expect a disaster to happen. Now they (for grins, always) are putting up the Suspension bridge (hey, 20 million, just ain’t going to cut it) - and oh btw - We found a way to finance the street car! Yeah us!!! Meanwhile the schools are failing, the police are a joke, the firemen are threatening doom and gloom and still they waste funds on stupid (and I believe union) projects left, right and center. Brent Spence is different from all of the above - it is I-71 and I-75 (yes both, north and south, east and west) Interstates - come on folks - that one is so easy - DOT (i.e. DC) needs to pony up the ‘infrastructure’ funds to do the work. It will be a union gig - so what’s the problem?

   I wonder if and when any enterprising Woodward and Bernsteins are actually going to do the heavy lifting as to why the levees in New Orleans failed, why the bridge in MN failed, why the Washington bridge failed and why (we’ve been here for 9 years) the Brent Spence keeps being in ‘negotiations’ rather than getting to work on repairs?

   I know that local politicos (usually Ds behind their names) want to fund pet projects and/or family - but when did we lose the media? I can’t believe that every single journalist has gone off the deep end to be so callous not to care about even questioning why these things are happening.

   But then I see the gun issue - We have seen the enemy and he is us.

   God Help Us all.

   Posted by wardmama4       05/27/2013  at  07:38 AM  

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