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Re: HTF does a bridge just spontaneously collapse in 2018 [DavHamm] [ In reply to ]
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DavHamm wrote:
hank rearden wrote:
Yep, that is a case study in engineering 101. This failure will become one.


Henk 1987 wasn't in my Eng. 101 class. Will ask my daughter if they talked about it in hers. Most Eng. 101 classes don't get into every failure. Now maybe if you took Welcome to Civil Engineering 101 it might be covered,

We never went into that, or the Molasses flood, or the Coconaut Grove fire - 3 things that really shaped modern design - in Architecture school at all. Barely had to know about them for the ARE either.

The result of the last two is part of my job every single day, but no one ever expected you to know why.
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Re: HTF does a bridge just spontaneously collapse in 2018 [DavHamm] [ In reply to ]
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Well clearly, my schooling was superior to yours. ;)

114 people died in the Hyatt collapse. It is/was a big deal. Obviously, Challenger was another studied case.

Yes, you are correct in a normal case that the safest plane wouldn't fly. But this isn't aerospace. This is a pedestrian bridge. 950 tons!!! It definitely wouldn't fly. It was over engineered... Just in every wrong direction. Too heavy. Zero redundancy. It isn't that complicated. They should have been able to tell that it was going to collapse. etc, etc...
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Re: HTF does a bridge just spontaneously collapse in 2018 [hank rearden] [ In reply to ]
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I'm thinking there was plenty of redundancy upon final assembly, just no thought given to it during construction. Or perhaps construction redundancy was taken away when the bottom support pillar was moved over.
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Re: HTF does a bridge just spontaneously collapse in 2018 [knewbike] [ In reply to ]
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Yes, once the cable stays were in place, it may have held up. It isn't clear if they met their design F.S. without the cable stays. The firm has said publicly that the tower and cable stays were cosmetic. Not sure if that is CYA or not.

Another issue, cost. 14 million. Damn.

BP pedestrian bridge designed by Frank "freakn" Gehry. 13 million:



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Re: HTF does a bridge just spontaneously collapse in 2018 [hank rearden] [ In reply to ]
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That's pretty bad. There are plenty of these still around. I bet they weren't 14 million


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Re: HTF does a bridge just spontaneously collapse in 2018 [hank rearden] [ In reply to ]
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1) Was it designed correctly? Should it have been able to support itself? Were the late changes correct?

2) Was it manufactured correctly? Were the materials up to spec? Was it cast correctly? Were the cable tensioned properly?

3) Was it damaged during transport? Was it supported in the correct places? Were the cables tensioned properly for transport?

4) Was it damaged while being placed into position? Were the cables tensioned properly for being in place?

5) Was it damaged while being stress tested? Or did that just reveal other problems?

Lots of questions.
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