As an Engineer, I’m often driven to find the why, the answer behind things. Also, statistics provide a level of reassurance that would seem almost bordering on ridiculous to the average person.
These two traits combine and rapidly form a mashup of ideas when I read news articles like this….
Though engineers have not yet determined why the Minneapolis bridge failed, bridge experts said its collapse was not necessarily the result of a physical breakdown. Of the 1,502 recorded bridge failures between 1966 and 2005, almost 60 percent were caused by soil erosion around the underwater bridge supports, according to Jean-Louis Briaud, a civil engineer with the Texas Transportation Institute.
Collapse Spotlights Weaknesses in U.S. Infrastructure - washingtonpost.com
60%, that’s 900 bridge failures cause by one thing, one weakness.
It would be interesting to see what the other 40% comprised of, but we can guess that it would be things like material failure, earthquake, impact, and inadequate design. So for 60% to be caused by foundation failure, it makes you wonder why no one has come up with a technology or foolproof method of protecting existing bridge foundations from this sort of failure.
Or why has no one come up with a method of determining that this is a problem on a particular bridge, or that for a new bridge, that it may be susceptible to this type of failure?
Either the statistic is wrong, or the bridge building community needs to come up with some safeguards for foundations of existing bridges, and improved technologies for new bridges.
- Canadian Cities Collapsing - The Infrastructure Report
- Popsicle Stick Bridge Building
- Foggy Bridge
- Erosion First
- How Many Popsicle Sticks?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
There’s a great graphic
There’s a great graphic at Washington Post too of the bridge before and after from an aerial perspective.
It’s interesting to think about fundemental design flaws in this way, surely some critical thinking would lead to a solution? Its kind of like saying 60% of road fatalities are caused by speeding… then doing something revolutionary about it, say installing speed limiters into every car, truck and motorbike. Would it work? Probably, but no one has the power to implement it.
Bridge engineering has
Bridge engineering has in fact progressed quite a lot but sometimes the basic aspects are ignored and more often in regular plain overpass bridges. However, lack of adequate maintenance also is partly to blame for rapid deterioration of bridges.
This is where it gets scary This is where it gets scary for the local DOT, I can that there will be a committee formed to review all bridge inspections underway or lined up, and a full risk assessment will be done on each…
MnDOT feared cracking in bridge but opted against making repairs