Posted on 03/23/2018 2:25:42 PM PDT by EVO X
MIAMI (March 21, 2018) — NTSB investigators remain at the scene of Thursday’s pedestrian bridge collapse on the FIU campus, focusing on measuring and documenting the critical structures at the north end of the bridge. Significant developments in the investigation include:
snip
The investigative team has confirmed that workers were adjusting tension on the two tensioning rods located in the diagonal member at the north end of the span when the bridge collapsed. They had done this same work earlier at the south end, moved to the north side, and had adjusted one rod. They were working on the second rod when the span failed and collapsed. The roadway was not closed while this work was being performed.
(Excerpt) Read more at ntsb.gov ...
Affirmative Action Govt agents will determine the safety problems of an Affirmative Action group of women Engineers.
What could go wrong?
I will save you all the effort.
The widget thingy somethin made me feel good.
Same team the investigated TWA Flight 800.
I suspect how this contract was awarded will be looked at. Universities want to be the first at do doing things to enhance their reputations. Was this a bridge to far?
In a nutshell ...
1. When the bridge section was moved into place, it was supposed to have four mobile support rigs holding it up in specific locations underneath it.
2. The contractor moved one of the four to a different spot under the section to avoid having to move a bunch of obstructions in its original path, and didn't account for the change in loading characteristics on the diagonal truss members.
3. It also appears that the contractor wasn't using "spreader plates" to spread the load more evenly on the four mobile rigs. It looks like the spreader plates were clearly shown in the design drawings.
4. And here's the most devastating angle ... The contractor knew there was a problem and was working to correct it using post-tensioning equipment -- without closing the roadway below to traffic -- when the whole thing collapsed.
“Same team the investigated TWA Flight 800.”
And we know how that turned out.
“without closing the roadway below to traffic”
Had this been done we wouldn’t be discussing any of this
My point in all these threads is/was who’s call was it to stop vehicular traffic under this thing??
Random Canadian figured that out without even being there, and spares no vocabulary words in explaining it:
http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/random-canadian-finds-the-smoking-gun-in-florida-bridge-collapse
Contractor better have lots of lawyers, and they’ll want to get cash upfront cuz he’s done for.
Therefore I was surprised to see recently that the FBI agent in charge of that, James Kallstrom, is on our side regarding the corruption at the FBI, CIA, and DOJ.
Kallstrom: Brennan And Obama Are The People Who Committed Felonies, Not Gen. Flynn
It would have to be the municipality or county that owns the road, but they would only do this if someone alerted them to a problem with the recently-installed bridge section. There's a good chance they had no knowledge of any trouble; the bridge section had been moved into place a few days earlier, and the road was open to traffic after all the temporary supports and equipment were removed.
As I suggested in the immediate aftermath of the collapse ... all indications up to this point are that the bridge design was fine; it was the construction/installation process that went bad.
“Math is hard!” - Barbie
From what I've read the question is why were they tensioning the bridge after the transports were removed. That is something that should have been done while the transport system was still in place.
Who knows what wrong at this point. However on another thread I saw a Frepper mention that these accidents happen when projects are in a hurry. Same thing with many plane accidents.
AvE’s theory is that while crews were trying to even-out the stresses in the bridge, they overtightened a tension rod so much that it snapped, bringing down the bridge.
The mentality of "if xxx lbs. ft. of torque is good then xxx*1.5 is better.
The contractor moved one of the four to a different spot under the section to avoid having to move a bunch of obstructions in its original path,
Reminds me of the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in 1879 where they took shortcuts when removing and replacing engines but damaged the pylon and an engine fell off during takeoff killing 273.
In 1879?
No wonder it crashed.
.
It's my understanding that the bridge was designed by a group of female engineers.
Since March is national Women's History Month, I have to believe that some sort of ceremony was scheduled to photograph and interview all the ladies standing on the bridge.
What a political PR disaster that would have been if the bridge fell down AFTER that ceremony was on video tape!
On the same theme...
A few nights ago I channel surfed onto my local PBS station.
They were broadcasting a program - filmed several years - ago about women who were succeeding in male dominated professions.
Among the women...
Elizabeth Holmes - founder of blood test company Theranos - the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world.
Last week, the SEC charged Holmes with massive civil fraud!
Also, Marissa Mayer - hired as Yahoo CEO in 2012 - Resigned 2017
Although Yahoo's stock price tripled under Mayer, every penny of increase was related to Yahoo's passive ownership of stock in Chinese search engine Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. Both of those investments were made years before Mayer was hired.
Mayer was hired to re-invigorate Yahoo's USA Internet business.
Under Mayer, that business lost 80% of its value over five years!
As to the referent article ... didn’t read it and wouldn’t care to.
But as to your conclusion, IMHO the “fine” design was the original “cable stayed” design ( ... and weren’t there women in on that? ... ) but the thing that baffles me, is that by all appearances of the imagery and description of this installation, the installed span was the originally designed span, and was exactly as designed, but without the tower and “stays”, whose attachment points are quite evident.
It certainly seems to me that the span itself was not redesigned, or even modified in any way. They simply “recalculated” and decided it would FUNCTION as a truss bridge.
If there were accommodations made in the design to adjust for this, I’d like to know what they were.
I would also add that the reported statements saying that the entire tower with its massive stays was mostly for decoration are outrageous to me. I can’t see anything other than a CYA campaign in this.
FIU Bridge Collapse Caught on Dash Cam
3/22/2018, 10:24:41 AM · 24 of 43
DUMBGRUNT to shelterguy
In some of the first images released, there was a blue cylinder on a rod(?) with a black line (hydraulic?) attached hanging in the rubble.
Appeared to be at the end of the slab with several feet of a rod (PT Cable?).
If so, a broken cable?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3641565/posts?page=24#24
And no, I had not seen the video from Canada.
How hard is it to understand this bridge failure? I’d start with the fact that it was designed as stayed cable bridge requiring a large tower with cables coming down from it to take the load.
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