Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Register Log in
  • Congratulations waross on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Houston Ship Channel Bridge 4

Status
Not open for further replies.
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Sort by date Sort by votes
I was hoping that link I provided would be accessible as I'm a subscriber and was using what I thought was a shareable version.

I updated the original post to include the free version on Chron.com instead of the HoustonChronicle.com version. The free version doesn't have the length nor as much detail, but still gets the gist of it.


Actually, if I post the "paywall" link into an incognito window, I get a pop up advertisement to subscribe, but I can just exit out and still get to the article without a login.


Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Is COWI's report available?

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This sounds like how they constructed the Zilwakee Bridge over the Saginaw River in Michigan back in the early 80's. They had problems as well, not with the design, but with the rigging of the prefabbed sections.

Here's a shot showing the gantry that was used to lift the sections into place. It was designed to literally 'walk' along the roadway:

BO-071_uknjsm.jpg

September 1982 (Minolta XG-M)

Here you see the problem, one section tilted because the supports holding it started collapse and the sections no longer lined-up and so they couldn't lift the next section into place:

BO-073_tme1g5.jpg

September 1982 (Minolta XG-M)

And this shot shows where the poor supports gave way. As you can see there was quite a load applied to that section of the bridge past the hinge point. I was just too much for the temporary supports:

BT-025_ewr2hn.jpg

September 1982 (Minolta XG-M)

They of course immediately halted construction and eventually fired the company building the bridge. After a couple of years looking into what happened, suing the contractors and so on, they finally hired a new company to finish the job. They didn't really do anything to the design of the bridge itself, just came-up with some better methods for rigging the bridge sections in place. Anyway, they finally finished the bridge about five or six years late. The irony was that just before they finished the bridge, the reason for it even being built was no longer an issue. You see, Interstate 75, a very busy highway crossed the Saginaw Rive vie a drawbridge which had to be raised at least two and something three or four times a day to allow a ship that delivered sand, sucked-up from the bottom of Saginaw Bay, to a pair of GM foundries where they did grey iron and malleable iron casting, mostly engine blocks and other cast iron items used by GM in their cars and trucks. And when the drawbridge was open, particularly in the Summer or during deer season when a lot of people were heading to the Northern part of the state, this could cause traffic to back-up for miles.

Just after they announced the new contract to finish the bridge and restart the work, GM announced that they we were closing the two foundries where that ship delivered sand to once or twice a day. So by the time the bridge was finally finished and it was opened to traffic, it was almost unneeded. If they had not built the new bridge, the old drawbridge would have only needed to be opened maybe four times a YEAR when ships delivered road salt to the highway department's depot a few miles past the bridge.

BTW, this bridge they built was AFTER they had already constructed a bypass section of the interstate that was routed so that while it still crossed the Saginaw River, it was just past where any ships would have been able to go in the first place, but this bypass added maybe 10 minutes to the average person's drive who was heading North on vacation or to go hunting or skiing and that was just too much to ask, so they dreamed-up the bridge.

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
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
FIGG did one here locally in Tidewater Virginia. Really an impressive bridge for the size. Similar to John's story, it was a draw bridge that had to open frequently. Didn't cause a lot of backups, but the old bridge was opened in 1928 and really needed to go. The new bridge is a towering snake of a thing - terrifying if you're afraid of heights.

As they were nearing completion of precast segment placement, the supports for the temporary rails gave and they dropped one of the last segments. Link

South_Norfolk_Jordan_Bridge_o2xhtk.jpg
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

and the response from the Professional Association is deafening.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The previous design was flawed," Harris County Toll Road Authority executive director Roberto Trevino told Begley. "It would have led to failure of the bridge."
Click to expand...

That is a pretty serious claim. It is one thing to have a structurally flawed design, that happens more often than we'd like. It is completely another thing to state directly that it would lead to failure. What are FIGG doing!?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I am surprised we are not hearing about an errors and omissions claim.
Click to expand...

I think this part from the full article is going to prove problematic on that front:

Still unresolved locally, is Harris County’s recourse regarding the initial design. Toll officials in 2014 accepted the FIGG plan, essentially buying the design without getting a second engineering company to review it, which is common but not required on major projects that involve no federal money.
Click to expand...

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MacGyver - it is, but it's a recent development for them. They have a long history of pretty impressive bridge structures internationally going back several decades. I had hoped to go to work for them when I graduated, but my wife didn't want to move to Florida, so I didn't pursue it. Glad I didn't...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ah, this is the same group that was working on the FIU Miami pedestrian bridge
Click to expand...

Yes, it was actually the collapse of that bridge that triggered the review of their work on this bridge here in Houston. Those lives lost in Florida potentially saved many more here.

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
More bridge art or was there some actual engineering here?

Precision guess work based on information provided by those of questionable knowledge
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The Vincent Thomas Bridge, over the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles can be a scary drive as well as it has a clearance of 184 feet and its approaches are very steep (fortunately we don't have to worry about ice and snow):

TDB-L-VTBRIDGE-0115_17-1_bxvidj.jpg


As for that 'curvey' bridge that phamENG posted a picture of, it reminded me of the bridges, albeit much smaller, that you find driving along the coast of Norway, near Alesund. They almost look like they were designed by Christo.

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
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
phamENG said:
They have a long history of pretty impressive bridge structures internationally going back several decades.
Click to expand...
I suppose a more valid question would be how many of the folk who designed the quality bridges are still around designing the not-so-quality bridges? If not around anymore, how well was their institutional knowledge passed along to the younger, incoming crowd? The first one is relatively simple to get an answer to... the second one, well, that may be a bit more difficult to nail down.

Dan - Owner
Footwell%20Animation%20Tiny.gif
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eugene Figg (US) and Jean Muller (French) - two very noted bridge engineers (especially segmental bridges) - at one time had a bridge consulting engineering firm together. Not sure when the partnership dissolved.

Figg passed away in early 2000's. His daughter, Linda, took over Figg Engineers after his death. Linda is a engineer, but appears to take on the role of 'bridges-as-art' director - what ever than means.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

StressGuy
  • Question
Pipeline Fire near Houston, TX 6
2 3 4
Replies
64
Views
203
Oops409
Oops409
Tomfh
  • Question
Baltimore Bridge collapse after ship collision 125
25 26 27
Replies
521
Views
1K
Oops409
Oops409
StressGuy
  • Question
H2S release kills 1 at PEMEX Houston Refinery 2
2
Replies
37
Views
121
1503-44
1503-44
Alistair_Heaton
  • Question
Australian Bridge
Replies
2
Views
50
JohnRBaker
JohnRBaker
Retrograde
  • Question
Bridge Collapse in Dresden 1
2
Replies
33
Views
112
Ingenuity
Ingenuity
Back
Top