Italy Bridge Collapse

[grober]

This may be of interest to any structural engineers on the forum?
Revealed | Collapsed Italy bridge construction photos and designs

 

[Petrol Pete]

Looks like this sagas might bankrupt Italy, who are virtually bankrupt anyway. The next post will probably be moved to the 'politics' section as it will no doubt mention the EU .

 

[flowrider]

Italy will blame the screw you and the screw you will blame Italy. Meanwhile those responsible will take their millions and fade away.

 

[coupe addict]

This may be of interest to any structural engineers on the forum?
Revealed | Collapsed Italy bridge construction photos and designs

That's rather more informative than the general media reporting (no great surprise that that should be the case): the search for scapegoats seems more important than the search for reasons for the failure, a trap into which most countries seem to fall these days.
There was an interesting snippet of video shown frequently in the hours after the collapse, in which the pier can be seen collapsing - albeit rather dimly through heavy rain - but also showing, it seemed, that the central section of the span between the two piers had already fallen prior to that collapse.
Given the apparently not great state of repair of the structure, this might put ones attention onto the simple connections between deck sections, and their expansion jointing. It might also be relevant to look at any temperature changes accompanying the evidently rather severe rainfall event.
This is, of course, just speculation and casting around for explanations - but its possibly more fruitful than choosing someone to send to jail.

 

[grober]

General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge on Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela has same design as the Genoa Bridge- designed by the same bloke evidently. It differs in that the steel ties are exposed wires rather than prestressed concrete struts. The visual similarity is there mind.

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[neilrr]

Over 54,000 American Bridges Structurally Deficient, Analysis of New Federal Data Shows - The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA)

 

[Piff]

Planning a road trip to Italy next year - best to avoid motorway bridges

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Planning a road trip to Italy next year - best to avoid motorway bridges

That won’t be easy, especially if you’ll be entering from the French Riviera or through the Alps. The Italian road network is riddled with bridges, especially in the North where there are lots of tunnels too. Enjoy your road trip: beautiful country, wonderful people.

 

[grober]

Revisited one year on
The 'poetry of concrete', the tragedy of a broken bridge

 

[Wacko74]

I watched the documentary the other night then drove over spaghetti junction the day after
It does make you think how safe elevated roads really are nowadays based on the fact that they were never designed with todays traffic in mind
And I bet they never envisaged concrete cancer

Didn't hear anything about them blowing up the remaining parts either