Motorway Bridge Collapse in Italy

People were calling it dangerous for years. There was talk of taking it down and building a tunnel instead, they don't have much choice now unfortunately.
 


luvulongtime said:
built in the 60's it might be the classic Mafia cement scam
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More likely "concrete cancer" which we weren't aware of in the 60s. They will have been for an awful long time though.

MackemX said:
Did you bother to click the link and look about, are you viewing on a phone or are you simply being pedantic to take the piss as I'm not a structural engineer? :lol:

Thought to be fair to you, I had mentioned viewing the underneath but took that part out of my post as not everyone will be able to view on a PC/laptop and a phone may be difficult. I also did have pics of what I'd seen but didn't upload. I'm no structural engineer but I think I can see signs of repair underneath the column or are those dark grey bits just paint colour tests? ;) That along with a canny few cracks here and there in other places made me say it doesn't look in too great condition.

Google Maps
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Relax man, I went and looked and edited my post. There were some serious cracks on view which although probably not a risk per second would allow water to get to the steel
 
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Hotrific.

That design! Suspension cable (singular) encased in concrete. Barking . . . But I'm sure it would have been described as "elegant" by the designer/engineer at the time.
 
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Absolutely awful. You can't begin to imagine what it must have been like to be sat in your car and for the road way to give way below you.
 
toosb said:
So what is the usual way of doing it?
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Generally the road deck is suspended from numerous steel cables, spreading load across the road deck.

In this case the road deck looks to be suspended from a single 'cable'. A multitude of steel cables in tension, which have been encased in concrete.

Steel works in tension, concrete works in compression, but in a design like that the suspension arms will be predominately under tension. Concrete cracks at the areas under most tension (the joints with tower and road deck), water ingress leading to steel corrosion and eventual failure of steel. Concrete now being asked to work in tension which it can't do, bridge falls down.
 
hopefully this doesn't turn out to be horrible, and the injured people recover.
 
Gonna be a hell of a job to demolish the rest of it without moving out anyone who is unlucky enough to live close by. Would imagine they'd be moved out anyway with the threat that the rest of might collapse imminently.
 
andyw said:
Generally the road deck is suspended from numerous steel cables, spreading load across the road deck.

In this case the road deck looks to be suspended from a single 'cable'. A multitude of steel cables in tension, which have been encased in concrete.

Steel works in tension, concrete works in compression, but in a design like that the suspension arms will be predominately under tension. Concrete cracks at the areas under most tension (the joints with tower and road deck), water ingress leading to steel corrosion and eventual failure of steel. Concrete now being asked to work in tension which it can't do, bridge falls down.
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So it was a time bomb. I wonder how many other bridges are like that around the world.
 

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