Tesla drivers aren't the only ones that can't drive across the country!

[wayner]

No one can since the road is closed!

 

[Not an Ice]

Wayner
the failed bridge at Nippigon on the Trans Canada is definately a show stopper for all, but unless you where taking a generator on your trip, you/none of us, would have made it there to find out

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

No one can since the road is closed!

yep...the only place where 17 and 11 are on the same bridge.... Oh well, cross at the Soo and go south

Ontario's Nipigon River bridge fails, severing Trans-Canada Highway - Thunder Bay - CBC News

 

[Doug_G]

I personally know a couple of people who have driven Roadsters across Canada, never mind Model S. It was made possible by the Sun Country charging network. So the premise of this thread title is wrong.

The failure of a brand new (open 42 days) bridge is startling. This is either a serious engineering error, or the engineers just learned something new.

 

[RDoc]

I personally know a couple of people who have driven Roadsters across Canada, never mind Model S. It was made possible by the Sun Country charging network. So the premise of this thread title is wrong.

The failure of a brand new (open 42 days) bridge is startling. This is either a serious engineering error, or the engineers just learned something new.

Was that bridge built by any chance by Continental Construction from Boston? It sounds like Big Dig quality.

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

Was that bridge built by any chance by Continental Construction from Boston? It sounds like Big Dig quality.

Marshall Macklin Monaghan - Engineers (Canada), Bot Construction (Canada)/Ferrovial Agroman (European/Canada) - contractors. So, It's a made in Canada issue

 

[Peter_M]

According to witnesses, a gust of wind lifted the bridge deck. Pretty surprising that wind forces weren't adequately addressed in the design.

 

[wayner]

After the Tacoma Narrows collapse you would think that all bridges would be tested for aerodynamics. This gives more raw materials for engineering rings.

 

[beeeerock]

After the Tacoma Narrows collapse you would think that all bridges would be tested for aerodynamics. This gives more raw materials for engineering rings.

LOL... I guess they're making the rings from concrete now? ;-)

Cable stayed designs are complex and realistically wouldn't be attempted without computer software to run the numbers. Given that it was fairly cold at the time, I have to wonder if there was an issue with the cables contracting and a weak joint on the deck simply let go. I for one will be interested to hear the official autopsy results, but I doubt the wind was the sole cause. Never say never, but it doesn't seem that likely to me. In the case of the Tacoma Narrows, the wind set up a pretty wild oscillation that ripped it apart. The damage here looked far less spectacular.

At least this one isn't likely to have the ice chunks of death falling from the cables, like Vancouver's newest did...

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

The repair team is on its' way.....

 

[Spurkey]

LOL... I guess they're making the rings from concrete now? ;-)

Why not, I'm sure some engineer figured out a way...

 

[wayner]

LOL... I guess they're making the rings from concrete now?

There would be steel rebar in the bridge. Although they are called iron rings they have generally been made from steel for a long time - since well before I got mine which was almost 30 years ago.

 

[Doug_G]

View attachment 107715

This isn't too different from the actual solution. They piled on a bunch of concrete road dividers to force the bridge back into alignment with the road.

 

[beeeerock]

There would be steel rebar in the bridge. Although they are called iron rings they have generally been made from steel for a long time - since well before I got mine which was almost 30 years ago.

Mine is actually stainless (not sure what grade - LOL), circa 1988. I think extracting the re-rod from the concrete would be more trouble than it's worth though.

- - - Updated - - -

This isn't too different from the actual solution. They piled on a bunch of concrete road dividers to force the bridge back into alignment with the road.

View attachment 107759

That's fantastic.... LOL. Would seem to suggest an issue with the cable stay design, or the connection at the end. You need to allow for live load on the bridge, but you don't want it springing up as it apparently did when unloaded!

 

[wayner]

Mine is actually stainless (not sure what grade - LOL), circa 1988. I think extracting the re-rod from the concrete would be more trouble than it's worth though.

True, but it makes for a better story. I wonder how many, if any, rings were actually made from the iron of the Quebec City bridge?

 

[beeeerock]

True, but it makes for a better story. I wonder how many, if any, rings were actually made from the iron of the Quebec City bridge?

Yes.... I wonder. It would be rather ironic if in fact the answer is 'none', and the story was simply told to build the legend. My guess is some of the bridge metal was tossed into the melting pot when the first batch was made. After that, who knows.

 

[Doug_G]

True, but it makes for a better story. I wonder how many, if any, rings were actually made from the iron of the Quebec City bridge?

Maybe some were when they were first introduced, maybe... but they haven't been for a very very long time.

Mine is also stainless. A classmate wanted and got an actual iron one, but it eroded away to nothing over a few years. He got a replacement and shellacked it or something.

 

[Spurkey]

True, but it makes for a better story. I wonder how many, if any, rings were actually made from the iron of the Quebec City bridge?

Zero. Pick any Canadian engineering school's undergrad website, they'll all tell you it's a myth.

a little history lesson: the iron ring
After The Fall

 

[wayner]

Even that story from SFU doesn't agree with the more detailed story on Wikipedia that says the first bridge collapsed in 1907 as it could not support its own weight due to errors in calculations - and there is no mention of any locomotive. And given the fact that the rings weren't handed out until 1925 it is highly unlikely that anyone kept the iron from that first bridge for 18 years.

By 1904, the southern half of the structure was taking shape. However, preliminary calculations made early in the planning stages were never properly checked when the design was finalized, and the actual weight of the bridge was far in excess of its carrying capacity. The dead load was too heavy. All went well until the bridge was nearing completion in the summer of 1907, when the QBRC site engineering team under Norman McLure began noticing increasing distortions of key structural members already in place.[SUP][citation needed][/SUP]
McLure became increasingly concerned and wrote repeatedly to QBRC consulting engineer Theodore Cooper, who at first replied that the problems were minor. The Phoenix Bridge Company officials claimed that the beams must already have been bent before they were installed, but by August 27 it had become clear to McLure that this was wrong. A more experienced engineer might have telegraphed Cooper, but McLure wrote him a letter, and then went to New York to meet with him on August 29, 1907. Cooper then agreed that the issue was serious, and promptly telegraphed to the Phoenix Bridge Company: "Add no more load to bridge till after due consideration of facts." The two engineers then went to the Phoenix offices.[SUP][citation needed][/SUP]
However, the message had not been passed on to Quebec before it was too late. Near quitting time that same afternoon, after four years of construction, the south arm and part of the central section of the bridge collapsed into the St. Lawrence River in just 15 seconds. Of the 86 workers on the bridge that day, 75 were killed and the rest were injured, making it the world's worst bridge construction disaster. Of these victims, 33 (some sources say 35) were Mohawk steelworkers from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal; they were buried at Kahnawake under crosses made of steel beams.[SUP][14][/SUP]