Posted on 04/30/2007 1:04:15 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
The chief engineer in charge of reconstructing the mangled ramps connecting Interstate 80 to two major East Bay freeways said this morning that it could take six weeks to several months to get the steel necessary to complete the job.
A connector to Interstate 580 collapsed onto the southbound Interstate 880 connector after a crash early Sunday morning in which a tanker truck carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline crashed on the highway below and burst into flames. Steel holding up the section of I-580 started to melt, causing pavement to pull away from support beams.
Today, Chief Engineer Rick Land warned that reconstruction could be delayed by a steel shortage, which is making it difficult for the state agency to locate the materials needed to fix the roadways.
He said it would take anywhere from six weeks to several months to have the steel made to order for the I-580 ramp, but that the agency may be able to "borrow" materials from other Caltrans sites. Officials are still evaluating construction needs on the Interstate 880 ramp, where the truck actually crashed.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
A. A CalTrans truck.
let the liberals swim across the east bay!
Maybe China can send some back?
Ping.
Rosie O'Donnell and the other 9/11 "Truthers" told me that it's not possible to melt steel with fuel so I'm convinced there must be some type of American created conspiracy to shut down the Bay Bridge!
Time to put in a call to Hank Reardon. What’s that? He’s not answering?
Can't be...everbody knows that fire can't melt steel.
Must have been a Gov't plot, bet that Bush had explosives planted in that bridge, just waiting for the truck to crash, so he could collapse the span and screw up the SF traffic (more than it already is)!
Yes, we need some Reardon Steel!
Wow. I don’t think I’d want to be sitting in that crane, that middle deck (the I-880 ramp?) looks a little singed too.
}:-)4
*shrug*
That's impossible.. There's no way that mere gasoline could melt those steel supports. I mean.. according to the conspiracy theorists.. even jet fuel couldn't melt the steel in the twin towers.. /sarc
When I read on SFGATE.com last night that they let the fire burn two hours because they didnt want fuel and foam spilling into the SF Bay, I just shrugged and said, well its your own damn fault. Yes, the structure may have buckled after 7 minutes, but the complete failure was the result of letting the fire burn itself out.
I guess the fishies win one, and the commuters lose.
That is simply un.......believeable! Save a fish, lost a freeway. But hey, it’s San Francisco and Oakland, so who really GAF.
ping to post 12
AlGore: The human Reardon Metal. It’s green and hard to work with.........
Maybe it’s the Israeli Mossad conspiracy behind this crash. After all..they know all about petrol-fed fire melting WTC steel. /sarc
Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter is correct about China and steel, same situation as armor plate for our vehicles.
Sad that we can’t create the main product that made us a superpower in the 40’s.
Hardly better in NM. We named the Orange Traffic Barrel the Official State Flower. It blooms in the spring, and vanishes in the fall and nothing happens in between.
It’s not that we can’t make steel, we actually make a heck of a lot of the stuff. It’s just all headed to China or it’s special formulations.... So CalTran will have to get in line at the foundary like everyone else....
Bo efing ho....
This has Ragnar Dannekjöld written all over it!
What’s truly lame is that the plan is to suture the 1950s POS structure. Why not just go for it and replace the whole thing with prestressed reinforced concrete? I bet it would not take any longer than what this FUBAR method is really going to take.
Folks, there is no giant warehouse underneath Nebraska.
There is plenty of steel being made in the US... it's just all spoken for already. Global demand is at all time highs. That makes for long lead times.
That was my thought. Getting custom steel on short notice is probably difficult. It’s not really a steel shortage.
The line to Galt's Gulch has been severed.
I say give Union Pacific the contract...they built a 6 month project in 17 days recently.
http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/2007/sacramento_bridge.shtml
They will always let tankers burn out. They only prevent the spread of fire.
But but but that would ruin the classic ambiance of the old span...
I find that they're always in bloom on I-40 near Gallup and pretty much everywhere between Sana Rosa and Tucumcari.
But you're right. Nothing ever seems to be happening. ;-)
They know how to get ‘er done.
Good thing for rosie, aircraft aren't made of aluminum...
friend of mine in the fabricating business has an order in for 990 peices of 10”x16” 3/8 wall tubing 45’ long and the delivery date is 4 months from a US company.
Large sections take time to get rolled and delivered, there is a backlog.
Give em a brake.
No, it’s not hard to find. The reality is that this economy is booming and steel manufacturers have backlogs of orders. The type of steel used to make bridges doesn’t normally sit around rusting in storage yards.
having said that, it is a crying shame that the US is not still the #1 manufacturer of steel products. We should be.
Ah, thanks for clarifying.
So it’s just the particular type of steel used for bridges then.
I hate to quote an old cliche, but “As goes General Motors, so goes the nation”. In those days we never dreamed we’d see them both fall so far. Duncan Hunter has 20-20 on the exodus of American manufacturing from steel to ping pong balls, and some solid solutions, as well.
We have a decent steel industry still. The manufacturers we have are efficient and high quality. The problem is that is a fraction of what it used to be, and there are far fewer mills to choose from here. Now we do indeed import lots of steel from Korea, South America and unfortunately China.
Hunter’s focus has mostly been on how this loss of US manufacturing capacity has impacted defense. It has- negatively. But in this instance, Caltrans expecting that busy steel manufacturers can get anything made in under six weeks is unrealistic, unless they are willing to pay a premium to bump to the front of the line.
General Motors problems go beyond outsourcing. They were/are a bloated, overpaying (particularly for pensions). They needed to get lean and hopefully they are doing just that. My problem is that you can get lean without enriching our enemies, namely China.
Sometimes I think Americans are bloated and complacent, and need to get lean and mean, too. Being a Depression baby, I innately know to save for the dry times, and am complacent never. Perhaps what we need to wake people up is another Depression. An awful thought, isn’t it?
Yes, bite your tongue. LOL
I have been reading that book The World Is Flat, which points out that the internet (and low cost broadband) has leveled the playing field. The workers are hungrier in China and India, and with the internet, can displace Americans in those jobs.
I have been reading that book The World Is Flat, which points out that the internet (and low cost broadband) has leveled the playing field. The workers are hungrier in China and India, and with the internet, can displace Americans in those jobs.
I have irrefutable scientific proof < SPITTLE> that THAT BRIDGE WAS DESTROYED BY EXPLOSIVE CHARGES PLANTED BY THE CHENEY ADMINISTRATION AS A PRETEXT TO PUSH US INTO WAR!!!!!!!!! < /SPITTLE>
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