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Thread ID: 81664 2007-08-03 03:22:00 Bridge Disaster In US SurferJoe46 (51) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
576036 2007-08-03 03:22:00 Guess it's made your local news...but here's a link anyway:
www.mercurynews.com

The director of highways in the state said the bridge had some structural "problems"...and that was OK...but then he said in the same breath: "It needed paint and some other structural improvements".

OK..gotta put this out to debate here...what-oh-what type of paint lends structural support or repair to a bridge?
SurferJoe46 (51)
576037 2007-08-03 03:26:00 Any paint will do, Joe. But it works only if it's applied onto paper glued over the rusted through sections. Graham L (2)
576038 2007-08-03 03:28:00 Maybe the engineers who built the bridge should of played this game before making it.

www.chroniclogic.com
Jams (1051)
576039 2007-08-03 10:37:00 I heard mention of severe temperature changes that may have played a part - a change of 20 degrees (I assume Fahrenheit) over a two hour period a couple of weeks ago. May have weakened the concrete... johcar (6283)
576040 2007-08-03 10:40:00 Must say,it's the sort of thing one might hear of in Russia not USA.

Though on second thought the Ruskies do tend to make things tough.
Cicero (40)
576041 2007-08-03 13:34:00 i hear they were re-surfacing it a short while before the collapse; making it look safe... gotta love structural (www.encyclopediadramatica.com) repairs using paint:rolleyes:

on the upside it's produced what is quite possibly the most hilarious vandalism of wikipedia yet (www.encyclopediadramatica.com)
motorbyclist (188)
576042 2007-08-03 15:18:00 "OM NOM NOM NOM" Leaves me guessing . . . what's it all about?

Anyway . . . the US highway/freeway infrastructure is sadly worn out . The latest frenzy of road and bridge building was in the 30's with the WPA and TVA and such . . . just basically work programs during the depression .

Notice I left out the word "great" in depression . . . . as I don't think we've seen a really "great depression" yet .

With the bleeding hearts keeping the chain gangs off the highways with the free labor it provided, the US doesn't have any decent motivate people who won't just take the money for highway repairs and run with it the South America .

I understand that CalTrans (the California Transportation Department) has had to let many positions in road/highway management go empty as the Chinese have invented a shovel that stands up by itself .
SurferJoe46 (51)
576043 2007-08-03 19:57:00 I saw a tv report that said there are quite a few other bridges in the States that were given the same status as this bridge a couple of years ago. "Structurally defficient, needs replacing soon"

I think I will become a bridge designer, there many be a bit of work in the States for them over the next few years.

I juts can't believe how few people have been killed I think the final toll be in in the 20's or 30's. Considering there were about 200 cars on the bridge when it went down.

Regards

Digby
Digby (677)
576044 2007-08-03 21:22:00 Amazing how bridge built by the Romans are still in use today but the modern world can't build anything that lasts. pctek (84)
576045 2007-08-03 21:40:00 Amazing how bridge built by the Romans are still in use today but the modern world can't build anything that lasts.

So true PC.
I saw mosaics coming off the walls of a building after 18 months,I had just seen them on a building in Cyprus that had been on for 1000 years.
Cicero (40)
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