Bridge failure during launch, Umeå, Sweden. 3

[Manitou90]

So this just happened a few hours ago in Umeå, Sweden. A bridge has failed during the launching. Only one person received minor injuries and could walk off-site by himself. Some videos can be found in the local news-paper.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vasterbotten/se-broolyckan-fran-ovan

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vasterbotten/olycka-vid-vastra-lanken-stalbalk-har-rasat-i-alven

Bridge is supposed to be 530 meters when finished.

I will try to keep the thread updated as more information comes along.

 

[LittleInch]

Took a while to figure this out, but from the text and the drone footage it appears that when sliding the bridge out it went too far and fell off the end of the rails, so a failur in the hold back mechanism.

The land side of the bridge then fell 10 to 15 m, the bridge bent over the first support and I guess the temporary structure and cables designed to give it strength as it cantilevers out over the span then failed / got shaken and fell off. See the snippet below which shows the bridge falling off the end of the rail system. I guess that last section is supposed to be inside where the walls are

Everything else is collateral damage.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Manitou90]

LittleInch: Seems resonable. Here's another picture from the launching side.

The articale mentions a "king pin" coming loose. Not sure what that refers to (not a bridge guy).

 

[LittleInch]

"The article mentions a "king pin" coming loose. Not sure what that refers to "

Probably the bridge equivalent of the "Jesus Nut" found on some helicopters

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

Seems to refer to the temporary suspension cables / post which I think fell off after the original failure.



Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Something similar to this happened back in 1982 in Michigan during the construction of the Zilwaukee Bridge over the Saginaw River. Construction started in 1979 and was supposed to have been finished by 1982. However in August 1982 they were only about 2/3 completed when an accident occurred where supports holding a section of the bridge failed and one end dropped about five feet and another section lifter up three feet making sections eight feet out of alignment. Between firing the general contractor and hiring a new company, figuring out what went wrong and how to salvage as much of the work as possible, if took another six years before the bridge was finally opened to traffic.

Note that we lived and worked in Saginaw when the project was started and it was a big deal because I-75, the main North-South freeway in the state, and as it crosses the Saginaw River it did so via a drawbridge, the only one along the entire length of I-75, which runs from Key West, FL to the Canadian border in Michigan's Upper Peninsula at Sault Saint Marie. Now upstream from this bridge was a couple of General Motors foundries and at least once a day, the bridge had to open to allow a ship called the 'Niagara' to pass (note that for each passage, the bridge had to open twice, for both the upriver and downriver trips}, as it brought sand that was dredged from Saginaw bay and used as casting sand in those two GM foundries. Now this would cause some monumental traffic back-ups particularly if it was on a Friday or before a holiday as thousands of tourists went up to the Northern parts of the state during the summer months and in the fall, especially during hunting season. So the decision was to build a bridge high enough allow the ships to pass. They also had to come-up with a scheme to do this without interfering with the river traffic so that's why the used that pier and truss approach.

Anyway, here are some pictures that I took shortly after the accident:

September 1982 (Minolta XG-M}

September 1982 (Minolta XG-M}

September 1982 (Minolta XG-M}

The real irony in all of this turned out to be a total waste of time and money. You see, a couple of years before they finally finished the bridge, General Motors announced that they closing the two foundries and therefore the drawbridge would no longer have to be opened on a daily basis. After the foundries were shut down, the only time they would have required the old bridge to have been opened would have been to deliver road salt and gravel to the highway department docks, which would have only occurred once or twice a year.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[JLNJ]

Another case of the walking boom gone awry, this one in 2004. A Figg Engineering project, no less.

One day they were patting themselves on the back for being ahead of the construction schedule, the next day four people were killed and the schedule and budget were blown.

https://www.toledoblade.com/frontpage/2004/02/17/crane-collapse-kills-3.html

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

King pin is usually a pivot point for pulling something this side of the Atlantic.

Aka on an articulated lorry the king pin is the attachment post between the trailer and tractor unit sometimes also called the fifth wheel.

It's also used in relation to Axel's so if you have say a pulley block with a hook that can rotate. The kingpin is the axel it rotates round.

 

[thebard3]

King pin is usually a pivot point for pulling something this side of the Atlantic.

Same on my side.

Brad Waybright

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

 

[Compositepro]

Just a tip, in English, bridges are erected, while ships and rockets are launched.

 

[LittleInch]

Well i think this one "launched" itself off the end of the rails.

a pity a lot of the Swedish sites appear to be subscription only. and that video footage isn't public at the moment.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

I suspect nothing much will be public until the criminal investigation is complete. Which won't take long.

I spent two years working in Pajala a bit further North it's a gorgeous part of the world. -45 Deg C in the winter though is a bit chilly. Great time taking pics of the aurora.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

I think we used to use launch in relation to MGB fast deploy military bridges, the ones that you bolt together ones side then push across. Then run like hell dumping decking panels in and then traffic can cross.

https://youtu.be/iTEh18HPWH0

I started sweating just watching that....

But that could be in the context of "main beam pin's in and locked launch the (expletive)" which would tell the rest of us that were pushing/counter ballast to go for it.

 

[Compositepro]

A floating bridge could easily be categorized as a boat (or launch), and therefore launched.

I just learned that the distinction between a launch and a boat appears to be:

"a heavy open or half-decked boat propelled by oars or by an engine."

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/launch

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

well just looked in my trusty 40 year old oxford dictionary.

"launch" to set in motion.... or another line says; make a sudden energetic movement

I think both of them cover this bridge ;-)

 

[Compositepro]

In that context, launching a bridge section could make sense. But launching a bridge is still an awkward use of English.

 

[IRstuff]

The title of the thread is consistent with the discussion, "Bridge failure during launch"; the bridge did indeed fail during the launch (of the bridge section)

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[SkipVought]

What we've got here...is failure...to launch.

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![/sub]

 

[Lomarandil]

Yes, for (partially) precast or prefabricated bridges with large segments, "launching" is a common term.

For bridges built in a more piece-by-piece fashion, "erecting" is more common.

----
just call me Lo.

 

[FacEngrPE]

Launching a ship off of an inclined shipway is definitely exciting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEm0RyHa714

This one was not so good.

https://youtu.be/rAx6OCzzoPU

You can see the similarity to launching in the context here.

 

[gwynn]

The term bridge launch is commonly understood among the North American bridge designers, erection engineers and bridge contractors I know. The piece-by-piece method of bridge erection is referred to as stick built locally (only applicable to larger multi-span bridges).

A few comments from the videos and description of the failure. The bridge looks to have both a launch nose and a temporary king post, which is fine but unusual for the launches I have seen. Given the king-posted arrangement, the king pin is most likely the pin at the base of the king post. Seems an odd point for failure to originate, if that is the case. Cost of upsizing that pin versus the king post itself is tiny, and compared to the overall project is microscopic. Something like that is often given larger safety margins due to the cost of the item versus consequences of failure.

Odd to see the formwork on the bridge during the launch unless it was design build. Every time we ask to do that the design engineers say no because it will mess up their haunch height calculations.