2005 Albany bridge near failure 5

[engeon]

bridgebuster:

I taught geological engineering at the Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and I am interested in the abnormal position of rocker bearings on bridges. We have evidence that valley walls and floors in E USA sometimes move towards the center of valleys in response to horizontal stresses in the rock mass.

Could we start a chat about the details of the subject near failure?

Sincerely,
Engeon

 

[bridgebuster]

At least I'm not the only one who believes the bearings played a major role in the collapse of I35W.

 

[engeon]

I did (and continue to do) a fair amount of consulting even though teaching was my main bag. When doing forensics, I tried--sometimes unsuccessfully, to live by two precepts: "don't get fixated on finding the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back" and "just because you are good at hammering, don't think the whole world is a nail".

I'll be a happy man if you all think that my theory merits some further work and thank you all for your kind help. Please keep it coming.

engeon

 

[wiktor]

I definitely think that the theory merit some further work. Some years ago, when reviewing the data from inspection, I was puzzled that the measured movements were not adding up, and on the other hand I was sure that the spans did not change.
As the viaduct was on a moderate slope, sliding was out of question.
Creep of the underlaying rock definitely makes sense to me.