July 31, 2007 Bridge collapse in Oroville traps truck driver.
Posted on 08/01/2007 8:16:35 PM PDT by bd476
OROVILLE, Calif. -
A highway overpass that was under construction collapsed Tuesday, crushing a delivery truck and seriously injuring a construction worker who clung to a steel beam as it tumbled 50 feet to the ground.
Firefighters swarmed the FedEx (nyse: FDX - news - people ) delivery truck to cut its driver from underneath a large steel beam that crushed the hood but missed the cab. A second beam landed on the back of the truck.
The cause of the collapse was being investigated.
The driver, Robert Sylvester, 45, of Chico, was pulled free about 2 1/2 hours after he was trapped. He suffered only a sprained ankle and minor cuts, his wife, Carol, told The Associated Press.
"We've gone from thinking he was absolutely the unluckiest person to the luckiest," she said, taking her husband home from Enloe Medical Center in Chico.
The construction worker, Jeffrey Doll of Olivehurst, who was on top of the structure, also was injured when it collapsed about 7:15 a.m.
"He rode it 50 feet down to the ground. It's incredible that he's going to survive that one," said Mark Dinger, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation.
Doll, 39, was in serious condition with a fractured pelvis, fractured left elbow and broken lower left leg at the hospital in Chico, hospital spokeswoman Sharon Cuglietta said.
The overpass was being built over Highway 149 where it intersects with Highway 70, about an hour north of Sacramento, California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Karen Ogle said. The project began last summer and was scheduled to be completed in fall 2009.
Highway 149 had been closed overnight and until 5 a.m. Tuesday while workers from private contractor FCI Constructors Inc. erected concrete columns and steel tubes weighing 2,400 to 3,000 pounds that were held together with cables and steel I-beams, Dinger said.
FCI has no record of health and safety violations, and a random inspection in July 2005 found no infractions, said Kate McGuire, a spokeswoman with the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
FCI Constructors President Curtis Weltz, who arrived at the site after the collapse, said he did not yet know what caused the structure to collapse.
"There's a bunch of different possible scenarios. It's never happened to us before," Weltz said.
Jacque Underdown, a spokeswoman for the project's second contractor, Granite Construction (nyse: GVA - news - people ) Co. of Watsonville, said the company was cooperating with investigators.
Carol Sylvester said her husband, a father of three who has worked for FedEx since 2003, had begun his delivery route and was driving north when he saw something fall.
"He saw something fall, he thought a box. Then things started hitting the truck," she said. "I think he's in shock and glad. It was a long time in the truck and he's glad to be home."
Construction crews planned to stabilize the remaining structure and remove an estimated 70 tons of steel worth about $50,000 that crashed onto the highway.
"The top priority right now is to stabilize this and get it reopened to traffic," Dinger said.
Meanwhile, FedEx was evaluating the "large number of packages" damaged in the accident.
"When it is deemed safe and all official investigations are complete, the packages will be retrieved and returned to our local facility," said spokesman Robert Boulware.
The Department of Transportation was rerouting traffic until the road could be reopened, possibly as early as Wednesday morning.
Associated Press writers Samantha Young in Sacramento and Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS age of deliver truck driver to 45, sted 46, per his wife. UPDATES that delivery truck driver released from home; ADDS comment from his wife and contractor. Minor edits.)
As I was searching for more information on the Minneapolis bridge collapse, I found this story about a bridge collapse in California.
It's probably just a tragic coincidence, but I sure hope that qualified engineers are going to take extra care in investigating the causes of both bridge collapses.
Fox News and Associated Press
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
California Bridge Collapse Injures Delivery Truck Driver, Worker
"OROVILLE, Calif. — A highway bridge under construction collapsed Tuesday morning in northern California, trapping a delivery truck under the debris and injuring a construction worker.
The Fed Ex truck could be seen partially crushed under a beam as rescuers worked for more than two hours to free its trapped driver. One large beam had crumpled the hood but missed the cab, and a second had landed on the back of the truck.
The driver, finally removed on a stretcher, had major injuries, said Roger Craven, a California Highway Patrol dispatcher. A Fed Ex spokesman had no immediate comment.
Craven said the construction worker's injuries were moderate and he was flown to a hospital in Chico. It wasn't immediately clear if he was on the bridge or under it when the beams collapsed..." End of excerpt.
Continuing on Fox News: California Bridge Collapse Injures Delivery Truck Driver, Worker
Beware the Bridge Truthers Brigade. Coming soon, I’m afraid.
I thought I was being overly paranoid after the Oakland/Dallas bridge collapses a few months ago, but I’m not so sure anymore.
If I’d been OBL, I would have run ONE jet into one tower on 9/11. Then, a year later, ANOTHER into the Capitol/White House.
The dhimmicrats would have made sure that there was no war against Afghanistan/Iraq (”Could’ve been a coincidence”).
He could have kept that up for years.
Good thing I’m not running Al-Qaeda...
I was looking for more information about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis and noticed these articles about a bridge collapse yesterday in Oroville, California.
Like today's tragedy in Minneapolis, the Oroville bridge was also undergoing some construction at the time of the collapse.
A Fed-Ex truck driver was injured in the collapse of the Oroville bridge.
It's a bit unsettling thinking that structural engineers could be at fault for errors in bridge design.
NBC11.com
NorCal Overpass Collapses, Traps FedEx Driver
Rescuers Pull Driver From Collapsed NorCal Bridge
POSTED: 8:58 am PDT July 31, 2007
UPDATED: 5:06 pm PDT July 31, 2007
OROVILLE, Calif. -- A highway overpass that was under construction collapsed early Tuesday, crushing a delivery truck and seriously injuring a construction worker who clung to a steel beam as it tumbled 50 feet to the ground.
Firefighters swarmed the FedEx delivery truck to cut its driver from underneath a large steel beam that crushed the hood but missed the cab. A second beam landed on the back of the truck.
Rescuers freed the driver, Robert Sylvester, 45, of Chico, about 2½ hours after he was trapped. He suffered only a sprained ankle and minor cuts, his wife, Carol, told The Associated Press.
"We've gone from thinking he was absolutely the unluckiest person to the luckiest," Carol Sylvester said after bringing her husband home from Enloe Medical Center in Chico.
The construction worker, Jeffrey Doll of Olivehurst, fractured his pelvis, left elbow and lower left leg when the beam he was on collapsed around 7:15 a.m. Doll, 39, was listed in serious condition after being airlifted to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, hospital spokeswoman Sharon Cuglietta said..." End of excerpt.
Story continues at NBC11.com NorCal Overpass Collapses, Traps FedEx Driver
Seems to me that daily structural inspections would be wise if a bridge were to be repaired while traffic continued to flow. I don’t have a background in this field though. Some repair steps could agrivate pre-existing weaknesses leading to failure. It sounds like the twin city bridge failure may relate to this.
If home improvements require pre-approval, step by step approval and a final inspection, thenit stands to reason pre-project structural reports, pre-approval, step by step approval and a final inspection should be required for bridge repairs. And if the bridge were to remain in service an inspector should be required on site.
How much of this is required I don’t know.
Excellent points, D1. I don't understand why these accidents happened, but I fear that shoddy workmanship in the original construction or even design may have played a part. It does seem that pre-construction and post-construction inspections would be part of the process.
Thus far, it sounds as if there are weak points in the bridges themselves which can lead one to conclude that there are corresponding weak points in the entire bridge building process.
Hmmm...two days...
two bridge collapses in liberal workers’ paradises.
Hmmm...two days...
two bridge collapses in liberal workers’ paradises.
I'm not sure I understand what you're referring to but other than the obvious safety and life concerns, another important issue to consider is that our tax dollars are paying for road construction and bridge building, from start to finish.
These bridge failures should not be occurring which leads one to wonder if it's due to an overall decline in engineering education or if there are problems in the bidding process which selects the independent construction companies.
Thanks for the additional comments on the importance of engineering. I do agree that every aspect of the production and upkeep of these bridges should be reviewed certainly to include engineering.
While it's possible that there is some terrorism connection to these bridge collapses, it is more likely that faulty bridge design, slip-shod construction and inadequate inspections caused the structural failures.
However, a bridge collapse caused by terrorist set explosives versus a bridge collapse caused by declining engineering school education resulting in poor design, shoddy workmanship and/or lack of comprehensive construction inspections lead to equally tragic consequences.
Our roads and bridges are not safe.
I don’t know if you followed the Oakland bridge collapse story, but the day after, another gasoline tanker missed a turn in downtown SF - didn’t cause a problem, but closed a major route for most of the day. Turns out that the maintenance people didn’t tighten the bolts on the wheels. When the driver hit a hard turn, the wheels fell off causing the accident.
That was my earlier point. You can disrupt major arteries (and American infrastructure) by doing very simple things.
If I was OBL, that’s the way I’d do it since everyone thinks...”Oh, just an accident,”
Ah yes!...the state taxpayers money at work!....
Generally speaking, public transportation project design and construction specifications are very seriously reviewed and analyzed by the public agency, both internal to the agency and (often) by an independent review team (peer review) for major projects. In addition, the engineering firm conducts its own in-house review before sending the design over to the agency. Why? Because the Engineer placing his seal on the plans is placing his future in the business on the line. The firms that get these jobs are the big-name firms with a lot of experience in the type of project.
Construction inspection is the same way (at least in most jurisdictions), very intensive to ensure conformance to the plans and specifications. The contractor isn’t paid unless the work meets specs (see caveat above).
When a structural failure occurs the NHTSB (Federal agency) gets involved, just like when a plane crash occurs. The American Society of Civil Engineers often runs a parallel commission to evaluate the cause of failure.
The Oroville and Minneapolis failures both occurred during construction. Mpls was basic surface repairs. Oroville - not clear on the scope of work.
That being said, sometimes stuff does happen (like the Kansas City Hyatt Hotel walkway), especially when raising steel framing members. The inspector and the engineer can’t be everywhere at once.
Especially in Gov contract jobs.
Did you notice re that tragic collapse in Minneapolis that there is an old cement bride behind the one that failed?
Up north of here, and down by Big Sur also there are several of those bridges spanning quite high canyons.
They seem to work fine after all these years.
And they are beautiful. Well at least to me they are...
Yes I did notice that old bridge. The Big Sur bridge comes to mind and also that bridge just south of the Rose Bowl by the 134. They’re some great looking bridges.
The “truthers” are those who think 9-11 was an inside job, e.g. Karl Rove himself remotely piloting the planes to crash into the WTCs. How long before the bridge collapses are also blamed directly on the Bush administration? (Not for neglect or something, but directly in causing the bridges to fail.)
There was a structural engineer on one of the news shows today discussing the interaction between decking which in the case of the Minneapolis bridge was concrete, and the steel frame/structure of the bridge serving as the supportive structure for the bridge.
The engineer said that when the steel framework/ supporting structure of a bridge is weakened over time, or from damage from cold temperatures, exposure to salt water, impact from ships, etc. then the deck itself becomes a critical part of the structure/supporting framework.
If there are repairs then made to the concrete deck then sometimes the simplest repairs made to the deck have the potential of destroying the overall supporting framework of the bridge.
Hopefully none of the old ones will need repairs that make them undriveable.
The ones I use can’t be bumped by ships thankfully.
Or real cold temps.
The Big Sur ones can get salt air, but not water.
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