Bridge collapse in Colombia kills 10 construction workers, several missing

Deutsche Welle ^ | January 16, 2018 | amp/jm (Reuters, AP, dpa)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

At least 10 construction workers died and several were injured after a partially constructed bridge in central Colombia collapsed on Monday.

The laborers were working on the bridge's drainage system when the incident occurred. The victims fell 280 meters (920 feet) into a ravine in Chirajara about 95 kilometers (60 miles) from the Colombian capital of Bogota.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

It’s an excerpt. Please provide the link. Thanks.

[libertylover]

Sad. They were actually working to improve their country.

[skimbell]

http://www.dw.com/en/bridge-collapse-in-colombia-kills-10-construction-workers-several-missing/a-42159760

[WeWaWes]

I watch the shows on TV about mega construction and always wonder about this. I suspect this is a project that we will not see as a tv show.

[Wilhelm Tell]

R.I.P. Poor guys. To fall and have time enough to know what is about to happen. Construction work is really dangerous work.

[jonno]

Looking at the video, the pillar concrete looks to have been “sub-standard” for the job.

[Doogle]

I’m gonna guess and say they rushed construction....deadline looms. Looks like a tower went with it.

[Doogle]

Eyep

[jonno]

fwiw - my guess is that they will scrap the other pillar too - and start over...

[Hatteras]

Worked for a company installing telcom sites for VOA and other international projects. Had some sites in Colombia. The engineers and techs said it was a little unnerving spending 10 hours a day under the protection of guards armed with automatic weapons and body armor (protection from the cartels).

[rrrod]

I’m here in Colombia now....massive road works are underway across the country. The have great roads but in the mountain areas travel is slow...too curvy to get speed up. Great for motorcycles.

[DUMBGRUNT]

ADDITIONAL INFO:
https://www.enr.com/articles/43848-colombia-launches-probe-into-deadly-bridge-collapse

An engineer with knowledge of the project says the reported nature of the collapse suggests a structural failure of either the bridge superstructure or of the foundation that supported the fallen tower. Unconfirmed reports claimed that most of the project’s workers were attending a safety briefing off the bridge when the collapse occurred.

...According to the engineer, several bidders elected not to pursue the project, citing the area’s poor soil conditions. The area has a history of unstable ground, including a 1974 landslide that killed 200 people.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Colombia motorway bridge collapses killing nine workers (1/16)

[TXnMA]

"Sad. They were actually working to improve their country.

It is, indeed, sad -- but, they weren't "improving" anything (except for some politician's inflated "4G" ego)!! Their leaders were exhibiting "$#!_hole country" mentalities!

Some observations from the video (not in time-sequence order):

1. That fancy, expensive, and (obviously) risky bridge was purely for "show" and would have served no practical, transportation improvement purpose. @16-19 sec: There is a short, (~1 mile) perfectly functional road that bypasses that wide, deep chasm -- by simply going around the upper end of the short canyon, where it is narrow enough to be spanned by a short, simple, conventional bridge. If more traffic capacity was needed, paralleling the upper bridge would have doubled it (providing far more capacity than the expensive and deadly "showpiece" span).

2. The apparent failed component was the tall, vertical, (?well?) reinforced concrete pylon --- which collapsed straight down [@16-18 secs]. (Failure of cables or cable anchors would have caused the pylon to topple away from the point of failure.)

3. The pylon apparently was made of inferior concrete -- not strong enough to hold up its own weight, plus the bridge's weight. @22-24 secs, note the dark gray pulverized concrete, which is characteristic of inferior-quality concrete, which has failed in compression (reverted from solid to powder, leaving the contained rebar exposed, unmarred, and free of adhered concrete). Apparently, quality control ("slump testing" to ensure proper cement/matrix/water ratio) is not a high priority in Colombia.

That Colombia "4G Infrastructure Project" sounds almost as irrelevant, unnecessary and wasteful as a "Bullet Train Project in (broke) Californica...

[TXnMA]

We agree. See my #15...

[minnesota_bound]

There are several other stories at the bottom of the page that have bridge collapses. Seems to be a common occurrence.
I would think bridge building by now would be fool proof.

[minnesota_bound]

My home state of Minnesoda
1898 bridge collapse.
http://www.startribune.com/an-1898-bridge-collapse-in-st-paul-was-a-costly-spectacle-but-took-no-lives/471303654/