Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
practical.engineering
Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
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Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#2Predictions and pre vs post accident is an interesting subject.
Which bridge that is currently in operation should be closed next?
(Not a dunk on the article, which brilliantly addresses the difficulty of knowing in advance vs making real world changes. Practical Engineering is an awesome YouTube channel!)
Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#3Predictions and pre vs post accident is an interesting subject. Which bridge that is currently in operation should be closed next? (Not a dunk on the article, which brilliantly addresses the difficulty of knowing in advance vs making real world changes. Practical Engineering is an awesome YouTube channel!)
> Which bridge that is currently in operation should be closed next?
The article/video actually touches on this:
> The City of Pittsburgh quadrupled their spending on inspection, maintenance, and repairs. And they redid the load ratings on all the bridges they owned, resulting in one bridge being closed until it can be rehabilitated and two more having lane restrictions imposed.
I don't know which one bridge it is, though.
Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#4The article goes incoherent in the first paragraph:
"...collapsed without warning. ...And this bridge had been listed as being in ‘poor condition’ for over a decade. "
Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#5It really is supremely fortunate that the collapse took place in the early morning when few people were about. I've walked under that bridge many times, it's a lovely recreational footpath through the heart of Frick Park, and more than once I've clambered up the hillside under the bridge for fun.
Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#6This is all interesting, but misses the point: the bridge collapsed due to a social (management, responsibilities, organization, ...) failure. Investigating the engineering story distracts from that, both in the video and apparently effectively as there is a NTSB investigation and not mentioning if any organizational review if the same rigor.
Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#7This is all interesting, but misses the point: the bridge collapsed due to a social (management, responsibilities, organization, ...) failure. Investigating the engineering story distracts from that, both in the video and apparently effectively as there is a NTSB investigation and not mentioning if any organizational review if the same rigor.
He talks about this a bit in the final three paragraphs, that the people writing the work orders are already overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork they need to deal with, preventing them from paying enough attention to what these reports are actually saying, and these new recommendations will have the primary effect of increasing that burden.
Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#8Same stuff for the Genoa, Italy bridge (Ponte Morandi). Everyone running on that would feel vibrations and "repairs" were just lipstick on a ugly face, until it finally collapsed, with 43 dead.
Surprisingly, or not so, no one was found guilty, not even the inspectors that didn't report the ongoing damages, just because "it would be too costly to rebuild it, and profits of the highway company (1) in charge of it would be zero".
(1) the company name is Atlantia, fully owned at the time by the Benetton family, yes those of the sweater chain
Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#9I just spent the last 4 years living in a series of countries that Americans would call ‘3rd world’. Places where proper funding of infrastructure, let alone inspections are so far below US metrics of adequate, they’d legitimately scare you.
Bridges and overpasses that exist until they break and the people die. People call out to God for justice! But all that infra is then rebuilt the same way if it’s rebuilt / when it’s rebuilt.
Something something American tech people have forgotten just how amazing the US is because they don’t realize how good it is. They take too much for granted. They have the safety to be snarky on the internet.
Get a passport and go for a walk.
Re: Fern Hollow Bridge should have been closed years before it collapsed
#10The article goes incoherent in the first paragraph: "...collapsed without warning. ...And this bridge had been listed as being in ‘poor condition’ for over a decade. "
Practical Engineering is emphasizing the suddenness of the collapse itself and pointing out that it was impossible for drivers (who were not aware of past inspections) to do anything about it. There is no inconsistency.