Cold breaks a bridge, splits Canada in two parts

[Horn]

Monday, January 11, 2016, 9:42 AM - The Nipigon River Bridge has partially reopened, after a major mechanical failure forced its closure Sunday, essentially cutting Canada in two.

The link, part of the Trans-Canada Highway, split during a period of intense cold Sunday, raising parts of its surface 60 cm, making it impassable to vehicles.

On Monday morning, the Ontario Provincial Police tweeted that one lane had been opened, warning drivers to expect delays.

Ontario's transportation ministry has dispatched engineers to the region to assess the damage. The closure temporarily shut down the only link between eastern and western Canada, stranding some travellers and forcing others to take a detour through the United States.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/intense-cold-splits-brand-new-bridge-strands-canadians-/62165/

pics at link

[Publico]

From my experience cracks in bridges are not a good thing.

[Horn]

It were a newer design/built bridge to replace the aging and older, less broken bridge.

says in the video

[monty]

It were a newer design/built bridge to replace the aging and older, less broken bridge.

says in the video
Was it one of the Chinese more cracks pre-fab jobs?

[Horn]

New "cable-stayed" design in Canada, apparently the cables run when it gets too cold!

have to breakout the jbweld-n-epoxy it now...


A $106 million project to replace the bridge with two parallel spans carrying 4 total lanes began in 2013 as part of a region-wide project to widen the Trans-Canada Highway to 4 lanes; the cable-stayed designs for the twin bridges was to be the first of its kind in Ontario. The future westbound bridge opened on November 29, 2015; both directions of traffic were shifted onto the new bridge to prepare the old span for demolition. The eastbound span is scheduled for completion in 2017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipigon_River_Bridge


https://vimeo.com/136477359#at=55

[gunDriller]

So if a bridge cracks in Butt-town, how does a comedian turn it into a butt-crack joke ?

Vista CA has the nickname of Butt-town

"A Shitty, southern California suburb where nothing ever happens."

[Horn]

this guy's a great read

Nipigon Bridge Failure —Social Vs Real Engineering— (https://sunriseswansong.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/nipigon-bridge-failure-social-vs-real-engineering/)

“Murphy’s Law” kicked in up in Canada, as a brand new bridge on the Trans-Canada Highway buckled.

https://sunriseswansong.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/nipigon-1-1297792332567_original.jpg?w=646&h=646 (https://sunriseswansong.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/nipigon-1-1297792332567_original.jpg)

This obviously is due to a mistake in the engineering of the bridge. There is discussion about whether the buckling was caused by a storm’s high winds, or very cold temperatures causing cables to contract more than expected, or both, but it really doesn’t matter. Problems such as these are suppose to be discussed and solved before construction even begins. It is a bit late to be heading back to the old drawing board.
https://sunriseswansong.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/peter-arno-drawing-board-cartoon-new-yorker-1941-8x6.jpg?w=609&h=830 (https://sunriseswansong.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/peter-arno-drawing-board-cartoon-new-yorker-1941-8x6.jpg)

It is at this point that the wonders of tracing down the reasons for the SNAFU start to appear. This is also known as “The Blame Game,” and involves the absurdity of politicians, and a sort of engineering that has very little to do with real engineering: Social Engineering. Call it “spin” if you will, but it involves attempting to warp reality in such a manner as to benefit some, and to basically crucify others. It departs from firm foundations and launches into a sort of false reality which often creates the very engineering mistakes it later is in such a hurry to cover-up, or excuse, or blame on others, or in some way, shape or form deny responsibility for.

Already I’ve seen the “Blame Game” regarding the Nipigon Bridge blame Spain. I didn’t bother to dig into the details, but I gathered some thought the mystery of Canadian politics had involved employing a Spanish construction company, which had less-than-usual experience with arctic cold and what such cold can do to construction materials, in the building of the Nipigon Bridge. Others blamed China, because some of the materials had been obtained more cheaply abroad. It all struck me as somehow splendid. One can only marvel at the ability of some people to blame disaster, occurring on their own doorstep, on nations and peoples thousands of miles away.

This is not to say politics isn’t to blame, for often it is. Rather than the best engineer, some brother-in-law of a person who donated to the party-in-power’s election gets the job, though he happens to be a complete doophus. The result is then a doophus’s debacle, such as the buckling of a brand new bridge.

The buckling of the Nipigon Bridge was due to real problems with real engineering, and created a whole new set of real problems for Canada, as Canada’s major cross-country highway was cut. On one hand real engineers set to work coming up with real answers, to open at least one lane of the bridge.
https://sunriseswansong.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/nipigon-2-nipigonbridge02jpg-size-xxlarge-letterbox.jpg?w=637&h=435 (https://sunriseswansong.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/nipigon-2-nipigonbridge02jpg-size-xxlarge-letterbox.jpg)

However these real solutions to real problems swiftly began to overlap the world of unreality created by social engineering. For example, the real engineers stated the most heavy loads could not cross the bridge, and this includes the super-heavy engines for wind-turbines, (which happen to be an unreal solution to the unreal problem of Global Warming). Those in charge of the real problem of wind turbine logistics then began to seek alternate routes down through the United States, but this of course involved crossing a border, which is an imaginary line involving passports, paperwork, and all sorts of complications involving paying politicians what are basically bribes, but is excused by calling them “fees”, or perhaps “tariffs”, or some other fancy-pants word.

At some point we are forced to stop and scratch our heads, and wonder why on earth we put up with Social Engineering. All Social Engineering seems to do is to get in the way of doing jobs correctly in the first place, and then gets in the way of fixing the mistakes that Murphy’s Law makes all too common, even when we strive to do things correctly in the first place. Why don’t we strive to stick to what is real? Real Engineering seems to trump Social Engineering every day in every way.

I have thought long and hard about this subject, likely because as a schoolboy I was guilty of being a bald-faced liar, when it came to telling the teachers the truth regarding the whereabouts of my homework. The reality was too stark for me, and I sought to avoid facing reality. Had I been a true engineer I would have faced the facts, and the facts were I hadn’t done my homework and must bear the punishment. However I didn’t like those facts. I wanted to change the facts. And therefore I made up some of the most amazing stories teachers have ever heard. So incredible were my tales that teachers gaped, their jaws hanging in total astonishment, and they were unable to act. I paralyzed them with my bull, and then the bell rang, and I made a beeline out the door thinking I had escaped punishment.

Of course I didn’t escape punishment. You can’t escape reality, as real engineers know. A day comes when the bridge you built simply falls down, like the gorgeous structure over Tacoma Narrows known as “Galloping Gertie”.

more at link

https://sunriseswansong.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/nipigon-bridge-failure-social-vs-real-engineering/