bendy girders

[Thorin]

Edmonton is building a new bridge over Groat Road, at 102 ave.  They had a little setback Sunday night.

best twitter reaction thus far was someone posting this: https://youtu.be/d4JBFPFDEUo

[Darren Dirt]

"At this point in time we are not able to identify a single factor that caused the girders to fail..."


hmmm... "too big to fail?"

[Melbosa]

Heard that on the radio this AM.  Wonder why eh?

[Mr. Analog]

STEEL I said
not PASTA!

They built a computer model using Pontifex but picked the wrong one (the one that launches trucks half a kilometer)

Turns out Lego has limits

YEG For Sale: 1 Bridge, never used, some factory defects

2016 Red Bull Crashed Ice XTREEEEEEEEEM Edition

...and so forth

[Tom]

Im curious as to how it'd set things back a year though. They are all still hooked up to the crane. lift the bent ones out, rush some new ones to be made, and then install those. Take a few extra months maybe.

[Thorin]

Turns out Lego has limits

Okay, I LITERALLY looked this up last night for I-can't-remember-why-anymore-but-it's-cool-to-know: you can stack legos higher than Mount Everest

http://gizmodo.com/5965451/how-tall-can-a-lego-tower-be-before-it-crushes-itself

But yeah, I'm surprised that they're saying a year.  It could be that they need to find the root cause?  I dunno.

[Mr. Analog]

Most likely two things that lead to a year

1. How did the current design fail
2. Replacement design

When something like a bridge fails unexpectedly there's going to be some thorough investigation

[Tom]

Ah, assuming it was the design that failed. Often parts just aren't strong when they aren't fully installed. A girder just flapping about is pretty weak.

[Thorin]

These are 40 ton girders which are already attached to the rest of the bridge at the corners, and at least three of them are warped/bent/buckled in the same direction.  They're not flapping around, and you'd expect bridge girders that are expected to carry heavy trucks and busses to be able to maintain their straight line.

I think it's bad steel, and they should get new steel from a new supplier.

[Tom]

These are 40 ton girders which are already attached to the rest of the bridge at the corners, and at least three of them are warped/bent/buckled in the same direction.  They're not flapping around, and you'd expect bridge girders that are expected to carry heavy trucks and busses to be able to maintain their straight line.

You'd be surprised what a long length of metal will do. It looks super strong, but it'll flap around till its fully integrated. Once it flaps around a bit too much, it'll buckle. You're sure it's fully anchored to the footings?

I think it's bad steel, and they should get new steel from a new supplier.

[Darren Dirt]

Im curious as to how it'd set things back a year though. They are all still hooked up to the crane. lift the bent ones out, rush some new ones to be made, and then install those. Take a few extra months maybe.

The bolded part is where the "a year or more" comes into play. Apparently the supply is the problem, the ridic quote is "it's not like you can just go to Home Depot and buy another one"...

[Tom]

Im curious as to how it'd set things back a year though. They are all still hooked up to the crane. lift the bent ones out, rush some new ones to be made, and then install those. Take a few extra months maybe.

The bolded part is where the "a year or more" comes into play. Apparently the supply is the problem, the ridic quote is "it's not like you can just go to Home Depot and buy another one"...

I did say /rush/ I imagine the normal wait is months, potentially longer for really busy fabricators. Though I presume they normally get companies to bid for the job, so who knows how long that can take

[Darren Dirt]

Donated books to help prop up bridge

EPL knows the Groat Road closures are causing our customers a lot of undue stress. To that end, we've decided to donate 100,000 books to help prop up the beams on the 102 Avenue bridge.

"EPL staff care about this city, and if there is something we can do to help Edmontonians, we will," said Tina Thomas, EPL's Director of Marketing. "Plus, we kept all of the old Encyclopedia sets even though all that information is now on the Internet. We knew they would come in handy one day."

The City of Edmonton is also on board. "We are very grateful to EPL," said Mayor Don Iveson. "Although an unorthodox solution, hardcovers are known to be extremely weather resistant and durable. We think this is a great, cost-effective solution."

Encyclopedias will begin being transferred from EPL to Groat Road on April 10, via City of Edmonton crews.

[Thorin]

Okay, that's a good April Fool's...