Florida bridge that collapsed was touted as 'engineering feat come to life'
She noted that "at the beginning of the life" of any engineering structure "the hazards of a failure is really high and then it would start to decrease."
Gee, if people had not been killed, this would almost be funny, If it doesn't fall down, implode, explode, break up, or otherwise immolate itself, the longer it stays, the better the job we did, is not a comforting thought for any construction project. Good data, solid design and materials would lead one to have confidence in their work. Sounds like standards have slipped in the liberal day and age.... Can't wait for the "It's Trumps Fault" to start....
Gee, if people had not been killed, this would almost be funny, If it doesn't fall down, implode, explode, break up, or otherwise immolate itself, the longer it stays, the better the job we did, is not a comforting thought for any construction project. Good data, solid design and materials would lead one to have confidence in their work. Sounds like standards have slipped in the liberal day and age.... Can't wait for the "It's Trumps Fault" to start....
(Sorry, 911 pentagon humor.)
Your federal tax dollars at work. If only the rest of the federal failures were as obvious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioC61...
"the hazards of a failure is really high and then it would start to decrease."
It sounds odd, but this is absolutely true. We calculate mean time before failure (MTBF), but it's deceptive because usually if you plot time and number of failures you get a graph that shows failures are rare when it's brand new, then they spike due to latent issues that shake out before the MTBF, and then farther out you get paradoxically lower probability of failure in any given time period. All this means if the MTBF is three years, you may get more than half of them failing before that time, but some of them lasting ten years.
It rubs me the wrong way when people not involved with a project, esp before the details are known, say if they had been on the project the failure would not have happened.
Jan
It would appear that for a span of over 300 feet that the center should have had an, at least, temporary support pier in the center until the cable hanging piers were installed. Gravity most likely overcame the 950 tons suspended on just the abatements at the ends.
While the conception of a project is important for it to be created, the actual engineering and constructors are most important. Governments like to have citizens believe that they are the creators of projects because they fund the projects. E. g., the NASA projects are conceived and funded by government (tax payers) but are created and built by nearly all private firms.
Honestly, she totally laughed at the concept - private contractors are the "goal" of cheap government, but unfortunately, they will inevitably cut corners in terms of materials, process, or timeline - all of which impact public safety.
As an inspector, she has to watch the private contractors and consulting-engineers like a "hawk" - they tend to skip testing procedures, use lower-grade materials, and routinely make comments about federal interstate minimum standards like "no Abrams tanks will be driving on this".
CalTrans is certainly an expensive and wasteful organization, with something like 15,000 engineers on staff, but they would never hang a bridge over an open in-use roadway, or put it up and open the roadway without all of the support structures in place. For that matter, they wouldn't try the ABC design process.. it's prone to failure. It's cheap, but obviously, this happens.
Some things really are better left to government... roadway construction, bridges, dams, military, etc.
Bet the lowest bid to build was snapped up in an instant.
The salivation of tort attorneys must have been instantaneous too. Me dino can imagine all those suits with briefcases flapping bat wings as they circle the sky above that crashed bridge like vultures, all screeching calls that sounds something like, "Pick meee! Pick meee!"
First a little history. About 1980, businesses nationwide began cutting payroll costs by combining certain roles in business organizations (I call this a "movement"); Several years later it was recognized as the cause underlying unforeseen/undesirable consequences. Specifically developers and adopters of the theory (movement) did not take into consideration the need for separate micro or macro thinking each of the roles required -- because typically each of these thinking roles mutually exclude the other. Very few people could operate in both realms because their "brains were not wired that way." As part of a small vocal minority which published a few books and articles why this would not work in the long run, immediate profits won out. We "die hards" are still around, doing other things for enjoyment in pseudo-retirement.
As a computer systems and software consultant in the last century, the lowest bidder typically caused numerous head aches for us because we needed to supervise the vendors (but we could not because the vendor contracts specifically excluded us). Our clients assumed the vendors had quality supervision, but later discovered they did not, because most vendors lacked the analytical ability to design an appropriate human software interface in a new and growing industry.
I moved my firm in a different direction. The firm became very profitable because we had both analysts and programmers; we had to charge the highest billable rates in NYC at the time to cover anticipated but undefined issues which typically arose in highly innovative and technical engagements. This policy eliminated potential customers who could not afford quality. We eventually specialized rescuing clients from competitors who failed to deliver on their contracts. There is an old adage: "Pay for it now, or pay for it later."
The bottom line is "one usually receives that for which he pays."
In retrospect, it was the right move, as I retired in six years and became a SCUBA diving instructor and then an airplane pilot, flying volunteer missions which provide needy people with transportation to/from medical treatment not readily available in their locale -- the latter I continue to do right to this day. Alas, I do not have the stamina to teach others SCUBA diving.
When I moved to NY from the midwest to marry my sweetheart, I interviewed with several divisions of IBM, Each told me I would be working very late when it came time to prepare the monthly closing reports. I asked why, and the answer was akin to, "We had to prepare spreadsheets and tabulate the numbers."
"Why don't you use computers to do that?" And the repetitive answer was, "We do it by hand." They never offered me a position as I did not seem interested, which was true. And they were not interested in my self-taught background in computers because they were filling an accounting position.
https://www.forthepeople.com/
I recollect a discussion I overheard while enrolled in my 2nd year of law school about how the students were going to use the law to rape the public. This solidified my distaste of the legal profession and I enrolled in another university's masters program in business with four minors in business disciplines I could utilize.
Upon graduation, the university offered me the directorship of its computer center and school-wide information technology -- a position I turned down because it had a unionized staff -- which would make it very difficult to bring about change.
https://www.forthepeople.com/business...
https://nypost.com/2018/03/21/dashcam...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/latest-stu...
In Orlando, the massive Interstate 4 construction project conducts its road closures during the night hours as much of the disruptive work takes place at that time.
While difficult for drivers at night with the frequent detours or lane closures, the workers perform their duties in simulated daylight.
https://heavy.com/news/2018/03/figg-b...
Interesting, but it still seems they knew there were issues before it happened, called them in as "cosmetic", then it fell down, so either design or building method, or materials seems the most probable causes. Maybe the video of it moved into place will tell, but they had 900 tons of bridge on 2 movers, so if one or the other got the least bit out of sequence in the move, it would have been an awful lot of lateral stress, and concrete is not that flexible.