Toledo crews are on the scene of a bridge collapse on Maumee Avenue.It is over the busy NS “Chicago” line.The contractors were working to stengthen and widen the span so NS could run a third track with proper clearance by the site.http://www.wtol.com/.../maumee-ave-bridge-collapses-city-.../
stay safe
Joe
Post was edited as it was in the Toledo not the city of Maumee.My apologies.
So much for the engineers knowing their craft!
http://www.wtol.com/2019/04/03/maumee-avenue-bridge-collapses-city-crews-scene/
Turned on link for you…
Thank you Brian.
stay safe
Joe
[quote user=“BaltACD”]
So much for the engineers knowing their craft!
Methinks the NS Public Projects Engineer now has ample fodder for future complaints about the condition of railroad bridges that look funny according to local political hacks. This was one of the bridges that were part of an earlier story in that neighborhood over clearances?
Too many years of deferred maintanance catching up with people?
City Engineers or NS Engineers - I have great doubt in the competence of City Engineers.
State sontractors were removing a 54 year old (GASP) road bridge in Colorado Springs, which collapsed onto the UP. There are two incidents on this thread. Has one has, and the other for that matter has/had nothing to do with railroad deferred maintenance or how pretty the ridge was.
Mac
With all due respect Mr. P, I was referring to municipal deferred maintanance, not railroad deferred maintanance.
As far as those municipal bridges are concerned I couldn’t help thinking of a comment frequent poster Miningman made concerning bridge collapse on another thread we had on the Forum…
"The Romans could have built that bridge and it would still be there!"
I think it’s almost a given the railroads take much better care of their bridges than most cities and towns around the country do.
On the subject of Toledo RR bridges, I noticed they were dismantling the old TT bridge over the Maumee alongside the Ohio Turnpike.
Perhaps those who design railroad bridges have a better idea as to the loads that will us their bridges.
I wonder if the Roman legions broke step when they used their bridges.
Did the Romans break step crossing bridges, kind of like we used to in the service?
Good question! Then again, considering the way they built those stone bridges they probably didn’t need to.
You know, there’s a lot known about the Roman legions, but a lot that isn’t known. Did they march in cadence? To drum beats? To music? Did they sing or chant on the march? Did they salute, and if so, how?
Some things about armies haven’t changed from Caesar’s time to the present, like pack straps damn near cutting your shoulders off on a forced march, and some have.
We just don’t know.
Heck around here people are wondering when the I80 bridge in Joliet is going to fail. It’s last inspection report rated it a 6 in total structure strength remaining and the idiots from IDOT still are hemming and hawing about finding money for the repairs. This thing carries over 300k cars a day on it. Not something I would want to see fall over 100 feet into the river below. Hell Tennessee just lost I75 in Knoxville due to a bridge failure.
Want to see some surviving Roman bridges? Have a look…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_bridge
You know, I really hate to critisize, not being in the trade, and what do I know? But with all the tools available to them nowadays some bridge builders, especially the failures, should look at what the ancients accomplished with what they had and hang their heads in shame.
I do have to admit a bit of ethnic pride in those Romans! [bow]
And Ms. Shadow, I watched a news documentary a few years ago concerning decaying infrastructure. There was a civil engineer commenting and he said there was plenty of money allocated annually for infrastructure repair but the damn politicians (local-state-federal) keep syphoning it away for vanity projects, you know, public buildings, stadiums, parks, and other “sexy” stuff they can slap their names on to satisfy their bloated egos. Nothing sexy about infrastructure repair.
It is true? Seems to have the ring of truth to it, to me at least.
Don’t even have to look to Roma - pay a visit to Lanesboro, PA and have a look at the 170 year old Starrucca Viaduct. And it’s all stone.
Tunkahannock Viaduct turned 100 in 2015. It may still be able to claim the title of largest concrete structure in the world. I will say, though, that the spalling is starting to show. If you look at the ground under it, you wonder if maybe a hard hat would be appropriate.
Of course, neither of those structures has to deal with the salt that northern roadways (and thus bridges) have to deal with.
That said, most structures today (and for a fair number of years, now) are “engineered” to do the job, and for a finite lifespan. The two aforementioned bridges would likely be very different if they were to built today.
In the period of time when engineers did not know the finite strength of their building materials and weren’t able to calculate to the last gram the stresses their buildings and facilities are expected to withstand as well as calculating the expected decay rate of the structure - the engineers built with the strongest materials they could think of and in a way which those materials would last. The had no concept of building something for a designed life - you built it to last or you didn’t build it at all.
When Eisenhower created the Interstate system legislation in 1956 - the design life they were aiming at was 50 years (note - 1956 is 63 years ago) and most of the early Interstate construction is in serious need of rebuilding (and to my mind rebuilding to a much higher standard than the 50 year life), after all 50 years crops up on you before you know it.
I believe that we have had a number of “spirited” debates here over the years about bridge failure and the need for preventive maintenance to prevent corrosion damage. (The thread titled “CSX Paint your Bridge” comes to mind).
In those discussions a number of posters claimed that corrosion was a (supposedly) good thing, because it somehow created a “protective barrier” that (supposedly) shielded the steel from more severe damage.
ESPECIALLY, according to those posters, if the steel was the specially designed for the purpose “Cor-Ten” steel .
Oddly enough, I guess that Neil Young was correct after all, there are documented cases where even Cor-Ten steel failed to withstand the relentless march of corrosion:
Flintlock-- Great stuff… 2,000 year old bridges still in use. People say this and they say that but come on…2,000 years! Pretty pretty pretty good I tell ya. PS … thanks for the mention.
The ATA actually did a study of the Highway Trust Fund and figured out by all the time the government workers took their shares out of the pie less than 20% of a dollar from that reached the highway for repairs. The rest went for their wages and for other things not related to highways. Things like bicycle paths bus transit systems and other ideas they have.
Never forget that the public officials and politicians who always remind us of the need to fix our crumbling infrastructure do not really want to fix it. It is a cash cow for government spending opportunities on other hobbies like public transit and trails.
It is a handy way to get into the pockets of the taxpayer. You soften them up with a big traffic jam and then come right in through their suspension systems. They fall for it every time. Bad roads are a cash cow, so they don’t want to actually fix them.