Barge hits bridge causing collaspe,cars and trucks fall into the river

[Tommy-the-Greek]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,53743,00.html

The thought of driving over a bridge and having it collaspe under you always crosses my mind. I just feel really bad for the people trapped under the water who drowned in this mess.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/26/barge.bridge/index.html

[PennState11]

Thats a real tragedy. The governer said some cars had children in them.

[skinsfan44]

This is tragic, but with all the barge traffic on our rivers, this kind of thing is going to happen. I drive an 18-wheeler now only in the mid-atlantic area(well, from Massachusetts to South Carolina and to Eastern Tennessee to Eastern Ohio) but back in 98' and 99', I drove over- the- road(all across the USA and Canada). I have been across this bridge(on I-40) and many like it in the mid-west and have wondered the same thing, tommy-the-greek.

[Pete]

Man, what a shame. I remember when this happened in the 80's over the Miannus (sp) river on I-95 in CT. Nothing hit it, just poor quality concreat the state got from Korea if memory serves me. They had to redo many bridges after inspecting them around the state. I always got the creeps when going over that bridge once they had rebuilt it. Ya think about how old some of the bridges we cross are, and it may scare ya. I wont get on a train after going through Hazmat training in the early 80's, and seeing just how old and under maintained the rails are.

[HighOnHendrix]

When I was a kid I had a phobia of crossing bridges, especially ones over water. I don't even think about it anymore; I just take for granted that the bridges are safe, no matter their age.

[Tommy-the-Greek]

Pete, I am a member of the NJCAA, I find it hard to believe they got there concrete from Korea. I know we cannot pour any concrete in NJ that takes any longer then one hour from the factory to the site and passes a slump test on site. And it would not be feasable to ship bags of mix here to have them mixed on site for such a large job as a bridge. Do you have any idea how many cubic yards in a bridge footing/support column? We have to carefully schedule the trucks so all the trucks arrive and line up in order so all the concrete being poured is going to cure at the same rate and would pass the same slump test as it is being poured and this is for new home const. I can only imagine that bridge work would be much stricter. Now they may have gotten there rebar or there additives from Korea.

The art of concrete work has come along way since the romans built there first aquaducts. There are many monofilament fiberglass additives put in the concrete to increase strenth and to reduce stress cracks. Maybe they got some bad additives from Korea. But I still think the local code enforcement officials would want to see documented UL ratings for such additives before they would let them use it. Now if they were doing it behind the inspectors backs...........that is another story.

[Tommy-the-Greek]

Pete do you remember what part of Ct. or what city?? I used to live up there and I remember 2 bridges over 95 from nycity to RI. the one in old saybrook and the one in niantic. I don't remember the one you are talking about......Do you remember what city it was near??

I know a man who is the head engineer from NJCAA, his name is Dr. Joe Wolf. He has done some work for me on site a few times doing core samples. He knows more about concrete then anyone on the east coast and is the Dr. Henry Lee of concrete. He does expert testimony in concrete cases all over the world. I would like to ask him about this case because it hits so close to home. This bridge in you refer to I must have crossed over it a dozen times......that scares the hell out of me.

By the way he also charges over 900 an hour plus lab time and paperwork/document time. That's why I have only used him a few times.....:laugh:

[Terry]

If it's the same bridge in Ct. that I remember hearing about, the concrete failed because the contractor failed to lay down enough rip-rap upstream of the piers in order to divert the flow and prevent 'scooping' underneath the bridge.

The bridge supports may also not have been placed on bedrock.

But the major cause was a lack of rip-rap, which allowed the full force of the current to erode the stream bed around the support base.

[Tommy-the-Greek]

Thank you Terry, Now that makes sense, plus it is something that the inspectors needed a submarine to inspect.......:doh:

[Tommy-the-Greek]

Here is a page of all major bridge disasters.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/26/bridge.accidents/index.html