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Experts raise new doubts about essential Bay Bridge rods
Sacramento Bee ^ | December 8, 2013 | Charles Piller

Posted on 12/08/2013 12:37:55 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

Yun Chung, a retired engineer and metallurgist, read the official report explaining why massive, high-strength steel rods on the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge broke last March and was stunned – then alarmed.

At first glance, Chung said about the July report, he saw obvious errors – some typographical, others that confused basic terminology. Digging deeper, he discovered more important problems. He concluded that the analysis defied metallurgical science and common sense.

“I think it’s very shameful that in this public document, this important (oversight) report, there are so many errors. (I have) a sense of outrage,” Chung said in an interview last week.

[snip]

Chung said he couldn’t understand how the oversight group, its consultants, and even a review team from the Federal Highway Administration missed such an obvious conclusion: Over five years, water corroded the bottoms of the rods – where all 32 breaks occurred. That was the primary reason they snapped when tightened. Corrosion introduced too much hydrogen into the steel at those locations.

Underplaying the environmental cause for the breaks – “the most fundamental error in the (oversight) report” – Chung and Thomas wrote, led to apparent complacency among oversight officials about future corrosion from the bay’s marine conditions.

As a precaution against corrosion, giant rods on the suspension span’s eastern anchorage and others at the top and base of the tower “are housed inside a watertight, dehumidified chamber so moisture is not readily present,” according to the oversight group’s report.

Chung and Thomas said that in the bay’s marine air, the chambers must be more than watertight – they should be airtight to prevent corrosion. Pizzo agreed that airtight chambers would be necessary...

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: baybridge; bridge; bridgesafety; rods
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It's a longer article with a lot more concerns.
1 posted on 12/08/2013 12:37:55 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Chung said he couldn’t understand how the oversight group, its consultants, and even a review team from the Federal Highway Administration missed such an obvious conclusion:
2 posted on 12/08/2013 12:55:22 AM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheel barrow)
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To: Irenic

Gues he never heard of “Affirmative Action Hiring”....


3 posted on 12/08/2013 1:15:05 AM PST by Kozak ("Send them back your fierce defiance! Stamp upon the cursed alliance! To arms, to arms in Dixie!)
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To: Irenic

Well if they fix the problems but don’t really “fix” the problems there are still problems and they get to keep on “fixing” them with money from the people and it keeps the union people working FOREVER.


4 posted on 12/08/2013 1:15:29 AM PST by funfan
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To: funfan

OOoooh. Like the Obamacare website? Taxpayers really do get the shaft— hard.


5 posted on 12/08/2013 1:28:10 AM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheel barrow)
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To: funfan

you mean kind of like FDRs program of “You guys dig a hole here and dump it over there, then the 2nd shift moves it back into the hole.”
Rinse and repeat


6 posted on 12/08/2013 1:28:10 AM PST by Undecided 2012
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I think I recall there being a big to-do about this bridge having been pre-fabricated in China.


7 posted on 12/08/2013 1:41:32 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (If you liked the website, you'll LOVE the healthcare!)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

“When it was built in 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was a Depression-era project that put scores of Americans to work. When its $6.3 billion replacement opens in two years, it will be an international affair from the bottom up, an example of massive outsourcing that has drawn both praise and criticism.

Half a dozen countries contributed expertise or materials, none more so than China.

“China was immensely helpful to getting this project built,” says California Department of Transportation spokesman Bart Ney. “They were able to turn the steel around and work directly with our own inspectors to make sure we met the specifications of what this bridge required.”

Several thousand Chinese workers spent five years fabricating the steel used to construct the roadbeds, cable strands, and landmark tower for the single anchor suspension bridge set to open in 2013.

But the project is sparking outrage among groups who argue the work should have stayed here.

Huge deck segments were shipped overseas from Shanghai, contributing to pollution, say critics, and delivering another blow to California’s battered economy and 12 % unemployment rate.”.................

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/20/san-francisco-oakland-bay-bridge-controversially-made-in-china/


8 posted on 12/08/2013 2:11:28 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Corrosion introduced too much hydrogen into the steel at those locations.

FR-er Metallurgical wonks please respond, is this a form of "Hydrogen Embrittlement"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement

9 posted on 12/08/2013 2:47:07 AM PST by taildragger (The E-GOP won't know what hit them, The Party of Reagan is almost here, hang tight folks....)
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To: taildragger

Here in Seattle they just tore down a 13-story skyscraper. It was built about 10 years ago. They started having corrosion in the pre-tensioned wires. They were supposed to have a dab of epoxy on the ends. The guy didn’t do his job. And managers, inspectors, etc. didn’t do their jobs. They spent millions trying to fix the problem to no avail.

Funny thing is, it was built by the carpenter’s union FOR the carpenter’s union. To be a source of income for their pensions.

I’m guessing it will be a tad more expensive to tear down the bridge and start from scratch.


10 posted on 12/08/2013 2:55:38 AM PST by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts 2013 is 1933 REBORN)
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To: 21twelve

“....Replacement of the rods, which are embedded in the foundation, would be difficult if not impossible. “My concern with the (tower) anchor rods is that there’s no redundancy,” Chung said. “Once they break, there’s nothing you can do.”

Chung and Thomas also identified unexplained hardness profiles in many rods, including those at the main cable eastern anchorage and those anchoring the tower. Contrary to normal expectations, some of the rods are harder internally than at their edges....”


11 posted on 12/08/2013 3:00:02 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
At first glance, Chung said about the July report, he saw obvious errors – some typographical, others that confused basic terminology.

Yet, every day, on web forums just like this one, the outcry against grammar and spelling "Nazis" continues afresh. It all "counts," despite the cries from the tablet- and smartphone-enhanced thumbtypists, just like that stick-in-the-mud, behind-the-times teacher tried to tell many of us when swimming against the technology tide.

12 posted on 12/08/2013 3:28:24 AM PST by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: T-Bird45

Policy should be....Read what is intended, if you need clarification between their , there and they’re ask it , move on, don’t be a smug grammatical a hole.


13 posted on 12/08/2013 4:23:09 AM PST by Walkingfeather
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Not a comment on the concerns or article, but I used to work a lot with metallurgists, and once one told me if you want three opinions on on why something failed or corroded just hire two metallurgists. In short often failure is not always derived exactly.


14 posted on 12/08/2013 4:28:07 AM PST by Fzob (Jesus + anything = nothing, Jesus + nothing = everything)
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To: T-Bird45

You forgot “Well, you know what I meant.”


15 posted on 12/08/2013 4:32:40 AM PST by pa_dweller (Extremist tea-party-driven hostage-taking legislative arsonist without a life)
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To: 21twelve

I’m feeling a bit of schadenfreude for the carpenters union there.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/High-rise-unsafe-hundreds-uprooted-884077.php

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/belltown-apartment-building-to-be-vacated-and-dismantled-90537069.html


16 posted on 12/08/2013 4:36:32 AM PST by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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To: Walkingfeather
smug grammatical a hole

Is the author of the report a "smug grammatical a-hole" or just an engineer with a justifiable concern about people dying?

17 posted on 12/08/2013 4:49:38 AM PST by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
There was another article in the SacBee regarding potential problems with testing & inspection of the foundation piles:

Questions raised on Bay Bridge structural tests

Altogether, it does not paint a rosy picture. That bridge has potential issues both above and below the waterline.
18 posted on 12/08/2013 5:02:50 AM PST by lump in the melting pot (Half-brother is Watching You!)
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To: lump in the melting pot

I wonder how many kick-backs there given and received up and down the chain of command.

It’s a slow-motion disaster - unstoppable (sort of like Obamacare - though that fraud is moving somewhat faster).

Heads should roll.


19 posted on 12/08/2013 5:08:41 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The company I work for profitted handsomely off the band aid “fix” for this project. Seems we put in a bid and were turned down for some of the original work, So when Caltrans discovered their lowest “Chinese” bidder gave them junk they came back to us for the fix. Rumour has it the owner broke it off in their backside.


20 posted on 12/08/2013 5:08:45 AM PST by BudgieRamone (Everybody loves a bonk on the head.)
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