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INFRASTRUCTURES * USA - No free bridges
First See this impressive video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqIJV-5GcGw
The worst thing about the horror show going on in Minnesota is that it never had to happen. Never !!!USA -Fleet Owner, by Skil Carr -August 3, 2007: -- “We know how to build and repair roads to last longer, but it requires a greater investment up front. Given the fact that urban travel continues to increase, we must act now to build better roads to accommodate such an increase in travel.” –William Wilkins, executive director, The Road Information Program (TRIP)... He wrote those in 2004 — three years ago now — as part of TRIP’s ongoing, yet ultimately never quite successful, effort to wake up government at all levels (as well as the general public) to the danger posed by our deteriorating highway infrastructure... We should have taken the repair needs of our bridges and highways more seriously, but we didn’t — it took a catastrophe that robbed people of their lives to wake us up. That’s the real tragedy here... (Photo by Jeff Wheeler/The New York Times/Associated Press - A rescue worker prepares to search a submerged vehicle after the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed Wednesday)
* MnDOT posts bridge detours
MN,USA -Fleet Owner, by David Cullen -Aug 2, 2007: -- The front page of the Minnesota Dep. of Transportation (MnDOT) website provides suggested detours around the collapsed bridge over the Mississippi on Interstate 35 West... Jim Burnett, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NYSB) told the Star-Tribune newspaper that investigators will likely focus on two primary causes for the collapse-- vibration and fatigue cracking. The newspaper also reported that a 2005 federal study found the bridge structurally deficient and Burnett told the Star-Tribune that such a designation might indicate a bridge “might be one not adequate for the traffic it takes, but not necessarily dangerous… But a lot of structurally deficient bridges are dangerous"... The steel-arched bridge was built in 1967...
* Trucks were lighter when bridges were designed
Cleveland,OH,USA -The Cleveland Plain Dealer, by Mark Puente -August 04, 2007: -- The trucks were a lot lighter and the cars a lot less numerous when most of Ohio's highway bridges went up a half-century ago... Today, the steel trusses and concrete pilings that hold up the bridges groan under loads that engineers and architects could not imagine when they designed the spans...
* How much has traffic changed?: The state had 3.94 million registered vehicles in 1960. It has 12.8 million today.
* What about the trucks?: It's not the numbers but the weight. The federal government raised bridge weight limits in 1974 to 80,000 pounds, from 73,280 pounds, and truck trailers grew quickly longer to carry the extra load.
* What's the result?: ...
Labels: bridge collapses
posted by Unknown @ 12:35 PM
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