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Rural Bridge Collapse Immediately After Opening 16

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Shotzie

Structural
Feb 12, 2016
156
CA
Link, the article claims that excessive pile settlement caused one of the spans to collapse.
 
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If there's anything impressive about this bridge it's that Macadam-like overlay that has stuck so well to the boxes. Anyone know exactly what that is?
 
The overlay looks like just compacted crushed base or crusher run. It may have some cement mixed in, but it interlocks fairly well even without that. Sometimes an adhesive membrane, similar to the ice & water shield used for roofing, is used over the top of precast concrete sections, although I don't see any evidence of it in the pictures.
 
Undoubtedly the pile bent(pier)settled. Note the cross bracing elevation at the water line difference between the two piers showing the near one has settled significantly. My guess is these pipe piers were made by jacking pipe sections down, one at a time with the existing bridge as the reaction load. Could be the jack was not accurately calibrated and maybe way undersized. The "pile cap" WF section has not bent or distorted due to excessive loading by the jack. These piles were not preloaded to any degree. Of course maybe there was no jacking.
 
Yes, obviously a failure by settlement. Also obvious that it was the result of a total lack of any subsurface investigation whatsoever. Blaming God for not creating something solid to hold it up was a nice touch, though.
 
I'm kinda with IRstuff on this one. If the new piers were placed at the same location as the old ones then there would have been pile conflicts. Possibly they cut the old piles off below the waterline and attempted to tie into them with new piers and cap beam. Then the new piers slipped off. Perhaps the old piles were heavily affected by scour and the new piers were tied in off-center applying an eccentric load which failed them.

Otherwise I have trouble understanding the sudden and immediate failure of continuous piles under the same reaction loads that were used to press them.

 
Here is a photo of the bridge before failure. Note that pile bracing connections are far above water level. Pile bent must have settled uniformly not to bend the x-bracing. Also, in the "after failure" photo the the bracing connections to piling are underwater, as OG mentioned... must have been many feet of settlement before the span slipped of the pile cap.

Bridge-Before-1_oxu9qd.jpg


[idea]
[r2d2]
 
News update


That report states this is company:
Another report:
Identifies a different company: (without much of a web site)

And here we are told that "Construction and design were handled by Can-Struct Systems and Inertia Solutions, which have the same owner."
 
The Reeve (President) of the RM of Clayton Duane Hicks says the bridge that collapsed six hours after it opened was constructed without having a geotechnical investigation executed on the riverbed it stood on. “Effectively the actual fact of the matter is we do not have a heck of some huge cash,” mentioned Hicks.

In response to Sasktenders, the bridge contract was price $325,000. Hicks mentioned it is troublesome to justify an enormous finances for this bridge, which he estimated would have about 1,000 autos crossing it yearly.

Hicks mentioned he’d wish to see the brand new bridge accomplished inside the subsequent three to 4 weeks, although he acknowledges that will not be life like.

Link



 
So, they decided to save some money by neglecting to investigate what would be holding up the bridge; the phrase "penny wise and dollar foolish" comes to mind. Will replacing the entire bridge, as will be necessary now, be less expensive than a foundation investigation would have been?
 
Bimr... what language/dialect are they speaking in the quotes in that article??? Is there any video of this interview?

“I do not know who in charge however I determine God constructed most of this for us.”

“the entire 5 of them simply went straight down. Increase. 4 toes.”

“So one thing tells me that one thing beneath the bottom occurred. I do not know what it was. They do not know what it was. No person is aware of what it’s.”

“You’ll be able to’t drill by way of water,” he mentioned. “You’ll be able to’t do it. You’ll be able to’t take underground samples.”

“Effectively the actual fact of the matter is we do not have a heck of some huge cash,”

“They’ll go down deeper. And simply hold taking place and down and down,” he mentioned. “I do not know what I may ask them to do in a different way fairly frankly.”

 
Spartan5 (Civil/Environmental) said:
Bimr... what language/dialect are they speaking in the quotes in that article??? Is there any video of this interview?

Was wondering the same thing myself. My initial thought was that it was Red Green's hometown of Possum Lake, Canada.
"Thet Canada" colorful description of the bridge failure

Supporters of the Saskatchewan Roughriders:

DSC_3470_x9gke7.jpg


The article in the link describes some words and phrases that appear to be unique to Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewans Distinct Dialect

Incidentally, Eng Tips' own favourite Norwegian Uncle, dik (Structural) lives prit’near there. Heard that he has a nice dugout’ in a person’s ‘back forty’ off a goat trail in Manitoba, maybe as near as 500 kilometers away from Saskatchewan. Maybe he can elucidate.
 
The original report by mint julep is in English with the same quotes. The one in the link looks like someone used a speech to text app and hasn't edited it.

Looks like they skipped the mid stream geo tech because it was too expensive.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
 
Sounds like Jim Bob hired his cousin Joe Bob and Joe Bob's cousin/brother-in-law to build a bridge...
 
Looks like a failure waiting to happen, which did.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
 
Those quotes are beyond ridiculous and have obviously been Google translated from the French version. They don't match the original story.
 
charliealphabravo (Structural) said:
Those quotes are beyond ridiculous and have obviously been Google translated from the French version. They don't match the original story.

Maybe ridiculous, but if you review the minutes of meetings, the local people do seem to have a different grasp of English.

Minutes of Meetings

Dyck Memorial Bridge Warning
 
I read on a facebook post that they used screw piles. Even without a geotech you should be able to get an idea of the capacity by getting the torque reading. That is, assuming you have someone that has a basic understanding. Seems they hired some real geniuses here. We looked at one collapse involving screw piles and discovered they merely put in the lengths they had and went home. That structure also settled 4'-0" before the bottom the structure sat on the ground. During the demolition we found the torque was something like 9,000ft*lb when we first started to remove the piles. It should have been in excess of 40,000ft*lb.
 
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