Posted on 03/24/2011 2:08:11 PM PDT by James C. Bennett
Signed, sealed, delivered.
I hate being anal about things like this but it is in my nature...Granted it was 7 years ago, but I lived in the Kanto area for 3 years and I don’t remember a “Great Kanto Highway”, nor could I find any reference to it except those that pointed to this article.
Okay, maybe it’s just a bad translation. I did find a North Kanto Expressway, but that’s too far north. There is an East Kanto Expressway in Chiba, an area that had a lot of earthquake damage, but now the problem is that I can’t find any Naka, except a Nakamachi that’s a few miles from the expressway, it’s a neighborhood of Narita City. Anyway, I wish I could see the signs the photos to see exactly where this is.
To settle the point about the positioning:
If you look at the sign behind the hedge but in front of the pylon base, note you can see more of it in the after shot but the line of sight is almost identical in both shots. In the far background you can see distant hills in the “after” shot which you cannot see in the “before” shot. Finally, it’s patently obvious from the workman’s position, next to the rip, that the road section he was standing on had dropped 4-5 feet from the original ground level.
Conclusion: the “after” observation point is in the ballpark of 5 feet / 2 yards / 1.8 meters above the “before” observation point.
On the far left hand side of the “before” shot you can see one leaf-less tree followed by the leafed tree shaped like a witches’ hat. In the “after” shot you can see another larger leaf-less tree, to the left of the one that was leftmost in the first shot, and because the picture’s being taken at a higher elevation you can see more of the “witches’ hat” tree and the one next to it.
Conclusion: The cameraman must be either further away from the pylon, or be standing to the left of the original shot.
The thing that nails it for me, is the tree at the base of the pylon. In the “before” shot it has a branch sticking up, which is to the left of the pylon legs. The “after” shot shows the same branch directly in line with the leftmost visible leg on the pylon, but lower down.
Parallax 101, guys: how do you get a closer object to “move” down and right compared to an object in the distance? You take a jump to the left and stand on a chair.
Basically what happened on that stretch of road is that they had to pull down the entire carriageway to the right of the white lines, TOTALLY rebuild the embankment (hence all the missing flora on the right side of the shot), then build the road up to the original level, and resurface the whole thing so that the “after” shot doesn’t have a visible join.
As you know, elevated road sections are pre-constructed to a set size and specification. With the Macarthur Maze reconstruction, they could’ve reused the specifications (maybe changing to an improved concrete mix that’s more tolerant of seismic vibration), and followed existing schematics for the layout of the rebuilt sections.
It was an impressive logistical effort, but in engineering terms this would’ve reduced the planning and design stage from months to hours.
In contrast, the Japanese didn’t have that option. They must’ve had to re-engineer the whole hillside and couldn’t rely on any existing schematics. Plus, it looks like there are houses at the bottom of the embankment so the last thing they’d want is a truck to go sliding down.
That suggests they had to recalculate the quantities of soil and hardcore required to rebuild the hill, recalculate the gradient of the completely new artificial embankment (in the first shot it looks like a normal, natural hillside), the new height of the replaced road section, check it would be capable of supporting the weight of the traffic, reinforce if necessary...
They could’ve drawn on similar project experiences but couldn’t simply reuse existing plans. And that’s a major difference. Two full days out of that project, at least, would’ve had to have been spent identifying the condition of the hill and designing the new road accordingly.
It goes like this: Pile up soil - no wood, trees or compressible matter -- in 2' deep layers and compact to 90% in-situ density. Repeat until you get to the top. You rough the slope out at 2 to 1, or 3 to 1, or 4 to 1 as desired, until you get most of the fill in place. All this takes is a long line of dump trucks, a few sheepsfoot rollers and a few surveyors. In this case, they probably worked 24/7 importing and dumping soil, compacting it, and had a small arm of surveyerors on hand grading the slopes.
Bingo. Done. No engineering to speak of.
As far as re-using specs for the MacArther Maze, did you even read the article I posted.
Henderson explains that Caltrans required the girder’s center 40% section to be free of welded splices. “This requirement meant that we had to purchase 40-ft lengths of 2-inch thick steel plate, which is relatively uncommon as a stock item.”
You had welding requirements and weld testing that had to be performed immediately. You don't just assume that welds being fast-tracked in a 24-hour work cycle are good. Hell, Contractors had one stinking day to produce shop drawings for the work. Have you ever seen shop drawings? Do you know what it takes to have a CADD detailer detail all of the bolting patters and connectors for steel construction and have the shop drawings proofed for submittal in just 24 hours time? I didn't think it could be done.
What is with this bashing of American labor and praise of foreign labor, just because US union party bosses are a bunch of commie hacks? Maybe the union members aren't all a bunch of commit hacks, sort of the way cops tend to be pro-gun the way Chiefs of police are all gun banners.
That isn't directed at you so much as the parade of people here praising the Japanese for ditching a grading a hole in 6 days, with not a single Freeper even acknowledging the accomplishment US workers to rebuild 2 broken bridges in 26 days. Is it just the additional 20 days that is blowing everyone's mind?
I am embarrassed for all of the love here for foreign labor and the complete lack of recognition of US labor when they pull together. Frankly, this attitude makes me sick.
you are correct
There were before and after photos that were very impressive.
The section of road was perhaps 200 yards long. Itrequired none of the tedium, accurate tedium BTW, you dwscribed with a steel structure.
However, when compared to urban pot hole repairs, the photos were impressive
I saw this and posted it on my FB page yesterday. Unbelievable. Our state road crews would’ve taken 2 years to fix that road.
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