Has anyone seen this story, and what do you think Norfolk Southern should have done??
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25217754/
I think removing the electric motors was a bad idea, NS may need to raise the bridge if too much debris is wedged against it. But if it was up and could not be lowered due to debris of some kind in the river, a lose barge or some other large object the train traffic would be disrupted, I don’t envy the guy that made the call not raise it.
(shakes head) When will they EVER learn?
just my [2c] on this
If they were only caring about themselves, they should have raised the bridge, If enough debree get under there, the bridge is gone.
Thik about this though. With the bridge down like it is the Center of Gravity is ALOT LOWER and therefore the bridge is Stronger and more stable. With it up you are talking about 1-2000 tons of Steel airbourne and held there and not allowing the bridge to have the full deck for stablity and also the bridge will be weaker and fail faster. Yes it will be a blockage but the debris will still flow through the truss of the Bridge. NS is in a no wn situation tere raise it and LOOSE the bridge and sever a major artery for months or leave it down and cause a possible larger flood and make the cities upstrea from it mad.
Isn’t this the same bridge that is the May 2008 picture in the NS company calendar?
If this bridge is indeed a vertical lift bridge, only the lift span will clear the water when up. the rest of the bridge structure will still be able to ‘catch’ floating debris. It appears that the engineers feel that the lift span is a lot stronger when ‘down & locked’. If the lift span is taken out by the flood waters(either up or down), it will be catching a lot of floating debris(there is only a 9+ ‘channel’).
Jim
…I believe they said the bridge is over a 1000’ in length and the lift span, spans 400’. Depris {possibly}, will still collect on 60% of it’s length. It would seem reasonable to have the lift section in the “down” and locked position for best chance of survival…As mentioned above, it would be much more precarious facing any wind and water pressure pushing against it’s base. Sounds like a situation where whatever is done it will raise danger of damage to something or someplace.
Back in 1993, during the “500 year flood” I had occasion to go to Quincy, Il. This was a couple of weeks after the big breach. The amount of water in the floodplain was amazing. From the Hull exit, once you came down into the flood plain there was water everywhere. You could see the high water mark on houses, often 8 feet off the ground. This was for miles.
I never thought it would happen again, yet here it is 15 years later and we have yet another 500 year flood.
Dont fool with mother nature.
ed