Let us not forget the Thomas Viaduct–it seems to be holding up well.
Anytime Miningman! You comment on the Romans was spot-on and people should remember it.
Convicted one, VERY interesting article about that Cor-Ten stadium. Reminded me of something I read about the 1936 Olympics.
Well, we all know who the host country was, and when Hitler was presented with the plans for the Olympic Stadium in Berlin what he saw was a proposed steel and glass, very modernistic structure. He rejected it, and directed it be buillt of masonry.
Why? As he told the architects “Look at the Collosseum in Rome. Look at all those Roman amphiteaters. Look at the Pantheon. Two thousand years old, and they’re still there. Why? They were built of stone!”
Adolf wanted the stadium built to last as a monument to his Third Reich. Well, his rotten Reich is gone but the stadium is still there, and you can’t see it without being reminded of who built it. I guess even a maniac can get it right sometimes.
Cor-Ten has nothing whatsoever to do with the bridge failure that is the topic of this thread. And the quoted article does not accurately indicate what caused the failure in Atlanta; the ‘real’ reason lies with a different aspect of Government intervention: the removal of specific pollutants that ensured formation and then maintenance of an effective oxide layer in copper-bearing steels.
The problem is akin to chloride corrosion of certain “stainless” steels, where surprising amounts of actual orange rust can appear in a short time.
Some of these “engineers” (I like MC’s term for them, ‘highway bubbas’) may have gotten the idea that these steels are ‘noncorroding’, when the actual truth is that they are supercorroding, so surface-active that they form near-instant oxide that ‘self-heals’ into a relatively thin layer which effectively shields the metal underneath. Chrome plate works the same way; keep eroding or compromising that thin oxide layer and you get fairly prompt disaster (as in “hard chrome” lining steam-engine cylinders, another Great Idea that when implemented with training from the wrong kind of engineering training will give you horror in short order).
Mind you, I am not complaining in the least about the removal of sulfur, for example, from the atmospheric environment. But the practice of Cor-Ten assumed its presence … and clean
Bet the ODOT and NS are having great meetings …
Saw the headline and thought of the Maumee and Western RR 
True, but as I mentioned, it has been a frequent flyer topic in discussions here about bridge failure, usually championed by posters insisting that corrosion is not an area for concern.
FWIW, I don’t believe that Cor-Ten was specifically relevant to the other bridge failures then under discussion either, but still managed to find it’s way into those discussion anyway.
Please consider my contribution a submission to their body of knowledge.
Well so much for updating the bridge. New bridge will probably be much better design. Would not be surprized if NS will want a 4 track wide opening now?
Better or cheaper?
The PRR Rockville bridge over the Susquahanna River in Harrisburg, PA was built in 1905 and it is still as strong as the day it was built. I occasionaly go up to the lookout just north of Enola off Route 15 and watch the long NS trains roll over it. There was a coal train derailment on it a number of years ago. Did not hurt the bridge at all, A number of the coal cars dropped into the river though.
Caldreamer
The Rockville Bridge isn’t the only one.
In 1887 the PRR began a program to rebuild most of it’s major bridges. Then Chief Engineer William H. Brown specified masonry instead of steel, believing masonry would be much more durable.
Two I know of are the bridge in Johnstown PA that withstood the flood of 1889, and a 1903 PRR Delaware River bridge of 18 spans between Trenton NJ and Morrisville PA. Both still there and doing what they were meant to do.
It’d be interesting to see a complete roster of PRR stone bridges still around and in use today.
They derailed because a portion of the bridge collapsed. And don’t forget Shocks Mills downriver. Middle of that gave out during Agnes.
So, was this just a very old concrete bridge built in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s ???
Not sure of the date, but the critical fact is that it was partially demolished, as the photos with the article show.
This collapse has nothing to do with bad engineering, poor materials, age or obsolescence (except indirectly). It’s likely about a contractor screw-up of some kind during the demolition process, such as a failure to brace, abutments that tilted or moved or were undermined, a local overload, etc.
- PDN
It sems every picture of a PRR stone arch bridge has metal bracing on it.