California Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge damaged by rains/earth 1

[JAE]

Some fractures at the tops of some columns - apparently some mudslides hitting them below.

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com...cle_59c5aaac-f466-11e6-ae4f-0741bcadb46c.html

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[itsmoked]

Agreed. Their idiotic wrecking ball scheme is for the birds. In our town which got hammered by the Loma Prieta quake our most iconic building (The Cooper House) got some damage, the dread X cracks. There were about 12 retail boutiques, a wine cellar, and a restaurant in it. Authorities were so worried it would collapse at any second (4 stories of masonry, huge marble stairways) that they wouldn't even allow the shop owners to retrieve their cash registers and papers.

They decided to use a wrecking ball to bring it down and predicted 1 to 2 days. It took weeks of beating on it!

Their 'environmental concern' is par-for-the-course along that iconic coast. I did a complex surface-water drinking system for a $25M house that hung over the ocean. The walkway to the filtration house was a narrow concrete path down a fairly steep slope. The path skirted the cliff being perhaps 6 inches from a 700 foot drop to Pacific Ocean. There was no handrail what-so-ever. Eventually the owners put up a handrail for about 20 feet at the closest-to-the-ocean approach. A month later a lady driving by on HWY1 chance glimpsed a few feet of the handrail from the highway in a specific spot more than 100 yards away and only along about 20 feet of the highway and reported it to the "authorities". The home owners were run thru the wringer for damaging the view.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[msquared48]

Just need to get the slide going again, "naturally" to avoid environmental damage.

Aren't chemical explosions natural reactions?

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

 

[MacGyverS2000]

With enough force and some luck the structure will collapse.

Well, what engineering project would be complete without a good dose of luck!

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[Sparweb]

Wouldn't it be possible to use traction on a cable strung between the two center columns to cause it to collapse?

STF

 

[Milliontown]

The bridge has come down, in a rather dramatic fashion as seen on the Caltrans D5 facebook page

 

[Ingenuity]

That look did not work for me, but this should:Link

 

[itsmoked]

Indeed. Nice it didn't pivot forward and take the excavator with it.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[rocklove]

Watch some youtube videos and they mention that it cost some 20 M to do the job. Ouch. My business is surely on the wrong continent on planet earth. It would have taken us three days of scanning, drilling and restricted blasting to do this job. And if they paid us only 4 M, We would have smiled all the way to the bank. The wrecking ball makes more noise then restricted blasting.

 

[Spartan5]

I presume the $20M includes cleanup.

 

[Milliontown]

It's ~$21 million for demolition and a brand new bridge.

 

[JohnRBaker]

That sounds more reasonable.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
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[rocklove]

Agree, I check again, seems they plan to built a span bridge. Then it make sense.