Xinhua:Three dead in east China's highway overpass collapse
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Nan Yang
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Coincidence?
When China celebrate it's national day on Oct 1st, bridge in Taiwan collapse.
Then when Taiwan celebrate it's national day on Oct 10th, bridge in Wuxi collapse.
And When some US poster post sh!t from China, building in New Orleans collapse.
Spycraft and covert subversion must this be!Coincidence?
When China celebrate it's national day on Oct 1st, bridge in Taiwan collapse.
Then when Taiwan celebrate it's national day on Oct 10th, bridge in Wuxi collapse.
And When some US poster post sh!t from China, building in New Orleans collapse.
obj 705A
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the Chinese bridge collapsed because a truck was carrying 180 tonnes of steel way above the allowed load, plus the truck itself probably weighed an additional 10 tonnes, so the question is why did the building in the US collapse! either those 19 people living in it plus their furniture also weighed a total of 190 tonnes or American infrastructure is simply in a pretty bad shape, on the same grade as that of a 3rd world country.
Galactic Penguin SST
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Vintage European Infrastructures Are Collapsing
And indeed, as previously correctly assessed, the same causes producing the same effects, here we go. This time in the old Europe, in France and after Italy, where a truck whose tonnage was above the authorized limit has engaged on the vintage bridge linking the towns of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessieres causing it to collapsed at about 8am on Monday November 18, 2019.
Worse still, more than 840 other bridges are about to collapse! Indeed, old Europe is currently crumbling as we speak!
https://archive.vn/pitKJ/40cea7ed020e6cd8e7bfe1fcea2d6cc1d2720d2f.jpg ; https://archive.vn/pitKJ/138db9b71c2348dceae16b3ec9604e4334838419/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20191118125442/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJo5eIFXYAEJSPX.jpg ;https://twitter.com/olecorre/status/1196331860269371392/photo/1
▲ 1. The bridge linking the towns of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessieres after it collapsed on November 18, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T9boQglW_o
▲ 3. Pont effondré à Mirepoix-sur-Tarn : les précisions du Lieutenant-Colonel Gergaud. Nov 18, 2019
The OP is a known nut job on a CIA payroll so don’t try and talk logically about his posts.
Having said that I would tend to believe there is a real problem with illegal overloaded lorries.
I think I saw you on twitter just now lol.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
And indeed, as previously correctly assessed, the same causes producing the same effects, here we go. This time in the old Europe, in France and after Italy, where a truck whose tonnage was above the authorized limit has engaged on the vintage bridge linking the towns of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessieres causing it to collapsed at about 8am on Monday November 18, 2019.
Worse still, more than 840 other bridges are about to collapse! Indeed, old Europe is currently crumbling as we speak!
https://archive.vn/pitKJ/40cea7ed020e6cd8e7bfe1fcea2d6cc1d2720d2f.jpg ; https://archive.vn/pitKJ/138db9b71c2348dceae16b3ec9604e4334838419/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20191118125442/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJo5eIFXYAEJSPX.jpg ;https://twitter.com/olecorre/status/1196331860269371392/photo/1
▲ 1. The bridge linking the towns of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessieres after it collapsed on November 18, 2019.
Teenage girl dies, several feared missing in southwest France bridge collapse
18/11/2019 - 11:58
A 15-year-old girl was killed after a suspension bridge over a river in southwest France collapsed on Monday, causing a car, a truck and possibly a third vehicle to plunge into the water, local authorities said.
Four people were rescued but several others were feared missing after the collapse of the bridge linking the towns of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessieres, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the city of Toulouse, said fire service and local security chief Etienne Guyot.
Among those feared missing was the truck driver and the driver of a potential third vehicle, he said, adding that witnesses had reported seeing a van on the bridge.
The bridge which had a load limit of 19 tonnes, dated to the 1930s, he said, and was “regularly checked”.
https://www.france24.com/en/2019111...d-missing-in-southwest-france-bridge-collapse
18/11/2019 - 11:58
A 15-year-old girl was killed after a suspension bridge over a river in southwest France collapsed on Monday, causing a car, a truck and possibly a third vehicle to plunge into the water, local authorities said.
Four people were rescued but several others were feared missing after the collapse of the bridge linking the towns of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessieres, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the city of Toulouse, said fire service and local security chief Etienne Guyot.
Among those feared missing was the truck driver and the driver of a potential third vehicle, he said, adding that witnesses had reported seeing a van on the bridge.
The bridge which had a load limit of 19 tonnes, dated to the 1930s, he said, and was “regularly checked”.
https://www.france24.com/en/2019111...d-missing-in-southwest-france-bridge-collapse
Bridge collapsed near Toulouse: a teenager killed and "probably several missing"
Publié le 18 novembre 2019 à 09h31
The tragedy made at least one death. A suspended metal bridge located in Mirepoix-sur-Tarn, between Haute-Garonne and Tarn, collapsed on Monday, November 18, between 8 am and 8:30 am.
According to "La Dépêche du Midi", "a heavy weight truck that was above the authorized limit has engaged on the bridge". Another vehicle, a car that was crossing the bridge at that time, would have fallen into the river, with two passengers on board.
...
An investigation has been opened. This bridge, 150 meters long and 5 meters wide, built in 1935, was renovated in 2003 by the departmental council of Haute-Garonne, underlines "La Dépêche du Midi".
...
At the entrance to the bridge, part of which is still hanging, a panel mentions that it is prohibited to vehicles over 19 tons, said an AFP journalist. At this point, the Tarn river is more than 20 meters deep and 100 meters wide.
25,000 bridges in poor condition
The French road network has between 200,000 and 250,000 bridges. 12,000 of them depend on the state, of which 30% need repairs, 7% even presenting "a risk of collapse", according to an audit commissioned by the Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne to Swiss specialists.
In total, according to a parliamentary report, 25,000 bridges are considered in poor condition, 7% of state bridges, 8.5% of departmental bridges and 18 to 20% of bridges managed by municipalities. For those managed by the general councils, five bridges per department on average should be rebuilt within five years, according to the report.
"Given the condition of the bridges, we are not immune to a tragedy. We are at risk, "estimated last June the senator (UC) Hervé Maurey, who conducted this work with two rapporteurs, with the" Figaro ".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpi8sSUldwE
▲ 2. Un pont s’effondre au nord de Toulouse, au moins un mort. Nov 18, 2019
https://www.nouvelobs.com/faits-div...mion-et-une-voiture-tombent-dans-le-tarn.html
Publié le 18 novembre 2019 à 09h31
The tragedy made at least one death. A suspended metal bridge located in Mirepoix-sur-Tarn, between Haute-Garonne and Tarn, collapsed on Monday, November 18, between 8 am and 8:30 am.
According to "La Dépêche du Midi", "a heavy weight truck that was above the authorized limit has engaged on the bridge". Another vehicle, a car that was crossing the bridge at that time, would have fallen into the river, with two passengers on board.
...
An investigation has been opened. This bridge, 150 meters long and 5 meters wide, built in 1935, was renovated in 2003 by the departmental council of Haute-Garonne, underlines "La Dépêche du Midi".
...
At the entrance to the bridge, part of which is still hanging, a panel mentions that it is prohibited to vehicles over 19 tons, said an AFP journalist. At this point, the Tarn river is more than 20 meters deep and 100 meters wide.
25,000 bridges in poor condition
The French road network has between 200,000 and 250,000 bridges. 12,000 of them depend on the state, of which 30% need repairs, 7% even presenting "a risk of collapse", according to an audit commissioned by the Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne to Swiss specialists.
In total, according to a parliamentary report, 25,000 bridges are considered in poor condition, 7% of state bridges, 8.5% of departmental bridges and 18 to 20% of bridges managed by municipalities. For those managed by the general councils, five bridges per department on average should be rebuilt within five years, according to the report.
"Given the condition of the bridges, we are not immune to a tragedy. We are at risk, "estimated last June the senator (UC) Hervé Maurey, who conducted this work with two rapporteurs, with the" Figaro ".
▲ 2. Un pont s’effondre au nord de Toulouse, au moins un mort. Nov 18, 2019
https://www.nouvelobs.com/faits-div...mion-et-une-voiture-tombent-dans-le-tarn.html
▲ 3. Pont effondré à Mirepoix-sur-Tarn : les précisions du Lieutenant-Colonel Gergaud. Nov 18, 2019
Last edited:
Galactic Penguin SST
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Whatever how loud one is screaming "Berlin Bleibt Deutsch!", a common last ditch attempt Nazi slogan seen painted onto walls and the side of buildings and meaning "Berlin remains German!" during the doomed Battle of Berlin in May 1945, only deluded fools could believe that the vintage infrastructures of Europe could escape the same miserable fate, that is a final total collapse!
https://archive.is/ZNLP7/8770800f21ff88d9dd3f35834deba0e90a8156c1.jpg ; https://archive.is/ZNLP7/c4cf9bdc0fca10a880492e39443d7811dcd8101c/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20191119...hots.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/sam_8914.jpg ; http://web.archive.org/web/20160601...n-of-impressive-photos-of-the-destroyed-city/ ; http://archive.ph/vPx7g
▲ 1. "Berlin Bleibt Deutsch!", 1945.
A simple google search reveals more than nine pages of "buildings at risk of collapsing" over the last couple of years only, and in France only!
https://archive.ph/usoy7/2cb364314e7ee02c753a5d0ac280dacdf30684ba.jpg ; https://archive.ph/usoy7/87e4916358fa3319f287f9683934423d399902ed/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20191119152139/https://i.imgur.com/0OgNoHA.jpg
▲ 2. Google search result of 19th November 2019: buildings at risk of collapsing in France.
Why is Europe doomed? Flawed from the design stage back in the 1950s-1960s. Only a miracle can save them.
'Thousands of Italian bridges will be in crisis in the next 20 years'
28 August 2018
The next 20 years could be critical for Italian bridges built out of concrete in the post-war period, experts tell The Local.
The collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa raises questions about the prospects of Italy's more than one million bridges built out of concrete.
Italian newspapers have highlighted that 300 major bridges could be at risk of collapse. But an expert who inspects bridges and public infrastructure across the country says those numbers are far too conservative.
"There are approximately more than one million bridges longer than three metres in Italy. If even only one per cent, a conservative estimate, are in bad condition, we can estimate that at least a thousand bridges will be in absolute crisis in the next five to twenty years," Settimo Martinello, managing director of 4Emme, a Bolzano-based company that inspects bridges across the Italian peninsula, told The Local in a telephone interview.
Martinello says the bridges in real danger are not the marquee projects on highways – there were 1,622 bridges and viaducts longer than 100 metres in 2016, according to Italy's Ministry for Infrastructures and Transport – but more remote crossings and tunnels in some of Italy's poorer and less-developed regions.
The engineer Riccardo Morandi's bridge in Agrigento, now closed, or the Allaro Bridge in Reggio Calabria are often cited as at risk. And they are, but this only obscures the bigger picture of less visible, yet degraded, bridges that are equally at risk in smaller provinces.
"In some cases, a bridge will have been built 30 to 40 years ago and will never have been inspected or undergone any maintenance," says Martinello. "To maintain them you need technical knowhow."
While Italian motorway operators, in theory, have the funds and technicians to ensure regular inspections and repairs, bridges that come under the jurisdiction of smaller regions are overlooked: smaller provinces simply don't have the funds or technicians to implement regular inspections and maintenance.
"A surgeon doesn't operate without having studied medicine," Martinello told The Local. Yet "there are no bridges that don't require maintenance," he adds.
Negligence only intensifies the problem. "If you ignore them, the cost will only rise to repair them," says the expert.
'The eternal material'
In the 1950s and 1960s, Italy underwent a construction boom like few other countries in Europe. As the nation's industry grew, so did the country's infrastructure network. Concrete became the elixir of construction companies.
"In the 50s and 60s of the last century it was thought that concrete was an eternal material that eliminated, or in any case greatly reduced, maintenance costs. However, experience and research in the decades since have denied this hypothesis as it has been shown that even concrete undergoes degradation," Giovanni Plizzari, a professor of engineering at the Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Brescia, told The Local by email.
These days reinforced concrete bridges are far more durable because a bridge's core armour can be made of stainless steel, be zinc-coated or non-metallic. "These techniques, however, were not known or readily available in the 50s and 60s," clarifies Plizzari. Cable-stayed bridges today can also withstand the collapse of the bridge if one of the stays gives way.
Concrete in itself, therefore, is not necessarily the problem. An extravagant construction boom such as Italy's in the post-war period required fast and cheap projects, which meant that in many cases construction companies used poor-quality materials and failed to observe engineering requirements.
For example, the concrete cover that supports the core steel structure buried in many bridges should be 3 to 5 centimetres thick to protect it from humidity. 4Emme's Martinello says that in some bridges however the cover is only between 0 and 2 centimetres thick, which in turn invites a chemical reaction due to contact with air.
When the corrosion cuts through the concrete and begins to attack a bridge's core steel structure, you are essentially left "with a body without bones," adds the Italian inspection expert. Such a bridge can have a healthy lifespan of up to 70 years without experiencing any problems, but once the oxidization begins, a bridge can reach a critical condition in less than two decades.
Ticking bomb
Anybody who has recently driven on an Italian road will have witnessed the process Martinello describes. If a bridge has discoloured black lines and bits of metal bars poking out of it, then the likelihood is that rot has set in and the clock is ticking.
"Thousands of bridges will be in crisis in the next 20 years," Martinello told The Local. The economic disparity between north and south in Italy inevitably means that southern regions are less able to manage any problems.
How did this happen? Because cheap can become dangerous. "The introduction of pre-stressed reinforced concrete was initially seen as a very effective solution to reduce the considerable costs required by the maintenance of steel bridges," Professor Plizzari told The Local.
Another issue is that the weight that bridges have to withstand today is different to what was originally estimated when many bridges were built more than half a century ago. Today's globalized world has far more heavy lorries on the move than fifty years ago.
4Emme is part of a team working on a software project, weBridge, that allows local authorities to enter data about bridges under their jurisdiction and drivers to assess whether bridges on their intended route can withstand the load they are carrying. But as Martinello points out, the project born in February 2018 will only work if local authorities input the data.
Buy cheap, buy twice
The essential problem that has led to the perilous situation across Italy's, and much of Europe's, infrastructure network is that cheap isn't always good.
Governments, when issuing public tenders, favoured, and still do, bids that emphasize the most economically efficient proposal and the fastest turnaround. This meant good quality materials and durability were often overlooked.
This 'cut-price' boom invited seedy bids, often from criminal organisations, who had the disposable funds to win the bids.
"Public contracts managed by real criminal networks... having within them even representatives of the contracting authority are forever more," states a study by Raffaele Cantone, the head of the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC), on the entrenched role of the mafia and the 'Ndrangheta in public construction works.
The dramatic collapse of the Morandi Bridge has seen arguments about the role of criminal organisations in public infrastructure resurface.The Calabrian crime organisation the 'Ndrangheta is powerful in the region of Liguria, where the Morandi Bridge collapsed on the A10 highway on August 14th.
Martinello estimates than on average only 50 per cent of sanctioned materials actually go into major construction projects.
The problem persists. "In recent years the criterion of 'biggest discount' for the choice of winner in public tenders for infrastructure has been in frequent use," Plizzari told The Local. "This system could work in the presence of rigorous technical provisions and controls but could lead to a significant reduction in the quality of the work if the winner then has the freedom to modify some technical choices that become vital for a company that has offered a significantly lower than normal profit margin," he adds.
In brief, if you want it done fast and for peanuts you're likely to pay for it later. But who should pay for what?
"As we are now aware that no bridge lasts forever and that the problems are now well known from a technical point of view, the real issue to be discussed – not only in Italy – is a serious program of maintenance and inspections of existing bridges," says Plizzari.
4Emme's Martinello says no comprehensive census of Italian bridges has ever been conducted. Guidelines for maintenance have been redrafted several times, although "it is one thing to write guidelines, another to enact them," says the head of the inspection firm, which works with several Italian provinces and even Italy's government-owned motorway construction administrator ANAS.
Is the tragedy of the Morandi Bridge collapse, in which 43 people died, likely to lead to a census?
Plizzari argues that if the perils of the post-war construction boom are to be overcome, a national census born of political will is needed.
"In the coming years, we will see (or perhaps we are already seeing), the results of the construction criteria I described before when the reduced quality of the works will begin to manifest itself due to the degradation inevitably caused by the environment," he says.
The Italian government has announced that it is reviewing the 25 motorway maintenance concessions across the country with a view to nationalising its infrastructure.
The man who does the inspections isn't hopeful that a step forward will be made. "I'm convinced the government will not do anything," Martinello told The Local.
"There will just be more road signs with warnings."
https://www.thelocal.it/20180828/thousands-of-italian-bridges-will-be-in-crisis-in-the-next-20-years
And here again explained why it is doomed, by a French engineer and Professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), of Belgian descent:
Mediterranean plumbing explains the bridge of Genoa
19 August 2018 Jacques Neirynck Not classified
What happened in Genoa is improbable. There are still bridges built by the Romans, which have not been maintained and remain impassible through the centuries. On the other hand, in the same country, the same people built a bridge in 1960, probably requiring constant surveillance and maintenance, which were neglected and which led to its ruin, the death of 35 motorists and the disgrace of Italian institutions, including engineering schools. How is it possible ? To understand it, one must look at a detail that seems negligible: Mediterranean plumbing.
On the shores of the Mediterranean, plumbing fulfills every service imaginable except that which is expected. At the very moment you discover a new hotel room, you need to deploy an exploratory tactic to master the plumbing. Suppose first that it exists. In Greece or Morocco, I discovered rooms without the tap. In this case, the problems related to plumbing are reduced to nothing, which is the best solution.
If there is a sink and at least one cold water tap, the drama is already tied. Since it is not irreparably stuck by rust, open the tap carefully. As a general rule, no water will come out but a long moan of a beast in agony. This cry of despair is addressed to your neighbors and the management of the hotel: the tap stigmatizes you as being one of those Nordic tourists, keen on personal hygiene. After a variable time, the tap starts to spit a trickle of water, usually reddish. Do not panic, it's not blood, it's just rust. This incident demonstrates that local people have passed the Bronze Age and discovered the use of iron. So rather positive sign.
Additional hypothesis: the sink is also equipped with a tap decorated with a red cabochon, signaling the initial intention to reserve it to the flow of hot water. In general, however, the water remains cold, which is an advantage in the many cases where the cold water faucet does not work. By nature, if they work, hot water faucets deliver tiny liquid fillets so as not to waste a rare product. Sometimes the water is lukewarm. Very rarely it is really hot, even boiling. In this case, this is a mistake: get out of the hotel instantly. A bath heater may explode in the area.
Let's talk about the special difficulty presented by the absence of a mixer in the shower: the temperature of the water is controlled by cleverly playing both faucets. Assuming you can measure a temperature-tolerable water, it will vary as soon as another occupant of the hotel touches a faucet. Depending on whether it will open or close, suddenly the shower will become icy, which is not very good, or boiling, which may cost you shreds of skin. Insider tip: Learn to take only cold showers.
However, the construction of a bridge requires the correct implementation of a host of operations, including the most basic such as the maniacal respect of the implementation of concrete. If a maneuver cheats, eventually it can be disaster. The impossibility of a plumbing in the Mediterranean means that these people use techniques invented elsewhere that they have not mastered. A Roman stone bridge, yes. A reinforced concrete viaduct, no. If the plumbing does not work in your hotel, do not borrow the highways. If you care about your life
https://blogs.letemps.ch/jacques-ne...ie-mediterraneenne-explique-le-pont-de-genes/
In a nutshell, nothing to boast about!
https://archive.is/ZNLP7/8770800f21ff88d9dd3f35834deba0e90a8156c1.jpg ; https://archive.is/ZNLP7/c4cf9bdc0fca10a880492e39443d7811dcd8101c/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20191119...hots.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/sam_8914.jpg ; http://web.archive.org/web/20160601...n-of-impressive-photos-of-the-destroyed-city/ ; http://archive.ph/vPx7g
▲ 1. "Berlin Bleibt Deutsch!", 1945.
A simple google search reveals more than nine pages of "buildings at risk of collapsing" over the last couple of years only, and in France only!
https://archive.ph/usoy7/2cb364314e7ee02c753a5d0ac280dacdf30684ba.jpg ; https://archive.ph/usoy7/87e4916358fa3319f287f9683934423d399902ed/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20191119152139/https://i.imgur.com/0OgNoHA.jpg
▲ 2. Google search result of 19th November 2019: buildings at risk of collapsing in France.
Why is Europe doomed? Flawed from the design stage back in the 1950s-1960s. Only a miracle can save them.
'Thousands of Italian bridges will be in crisis in the next 20 years'
28 August 2018
The next 20 years could be critical for Italian bridges built out of concrete in the post-war period, experts tell The Local.
The collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa raises questions about the prospects of Italy's more than one million bridges built out of concrete.
Italian newspapers have highlighted that 300 major bridges could be at risk of collapse. But an expert who inspects bridges and public infrastructure across the country says those numbers are far too conservative.
"There are approximately more than one million bridges longer than three metres in Italy. If even only one per cent, a conservative estimate, are in bad condition, we can estimate that at least a thousand bridges will be in absolute crisis in the next five to twenty years," Settimo Martinello, managing director of 4Emme, a Bolzano-based company that inspects bridges across the Italian peninsula, told The Local in a telephone interview.
Martinello says the bridges in real danger are not the marquee projects on highways – there were 1,622 bridges and viaducts longer than 100 metres in 2016, according to Italy's Ministry for Infrastructures and Transport – but more remote crossings and tunnels in some of Italy's poorer and less-developed regions.
The engineer Riccardo Morandi's bridge in Agrigento, now closed, or the Allaro Bridge in Reggio Calabria are often cited as at risk. And they are, but this only obscures the bigger picture of less visible, yet degraded, bridges that are equally at risk in smaller provinces.
"In some cases, a bridge will have been built 30 to 40 years ago and will never have been inspected or undergone any maintenance," says Martinello. "To maintain them you need technical knowhow."
While Italian motorway operators, in theory, have the funds and technicians to ensure regular inspections and repairs, bridges that come under the jurisdiction of smaller regions are overlooked: smaller provinces simply don't have the funds or technicians to implement regular inspections and maintenance.
"A surgeon doesn't operate without having studied medicine," Martinello told The Local. Yet "there are no bridges that don't require maintenance," he adds.
Negligence only intensifies the problem. "If you ignore them, the cost will only rise to repair them," says the expert.
'The eternal material'
In the 1950s and 1960s, Italy underwent a construction boom like few other countries in Europe. As the nation's industry grew, so did the country's infrastructure network. Concrete became the elixir of construction companies.
"In the 50s and 60s of the last century it was thought that concrete was an eternal material that eliminated, or in any case greatly reduced, maintenance costs. However, experience and research in the decades since have denied this hypothesis as it has been shown that even concrete undergoes degradation," Giovanni Plizzari, a professor of engineering at the Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Brescia, told The Local by email.
These days reinforced concrete bridges are far more durable because a bridge's core armour can be made of stainless steel, be zinc-coated or non-metallic. "These techniques, however, were not known or readily available in the 50s and 60s," clarifies Plizzari. Cable-stayed bridges today can also withstand the collapse of the bridge if one of the stays gives way.
Concrete in itself, therefore, is not necessarily the problem. An extravagant construction boom such as Italy's in the post-war period required fast and cheap projects, which meant that in many cases construction companies used poor-quality materials and failed to observe engineering requirements.
For example, the concrete cover that supports the core steel structure buried in many bridges should be 3 to 5 centimetres thick to protect it from humidity. 4Emme's Martinello says that in some bridges however the cover is only between 0 and 2 centimetres thick, which in turn invites a chemical reaction due to contact with air.
When the corrosion cuts through the concrete and begins to attack a bridge's core steel structure, you are essentially left "with a body without bones," adds the Italian inspection expert. Such a bridge can have a healthy lifespan of up to 70 years without experiencing any problems, but once the oxidization begins, a bridge can reach a critical condition in less than two decades.
Ticking bomb
Anybody who has recently driven on an Italian road will have witnessed the process Martinello describes. If a bridge has discoloured black lines and bits of metal bars poking out of it, then the likelihood is that rot has set in and the clock is ticking.
"Thousands of bridges will be in crisis in the next 20 years," Martinello told The Local. The economic disparity between north and south in Italy inevitably means that southern regions are less able to manage any problems.
How did this happen? Because cheap can become dangerous. "The introduction of pre-stressed reinforced concrete was initially seen as a very effective solution to reduce the considerable costs required by the maintenance of steel bridges," Professor Plizzari told The Local.
Another issue is that the weight that bridges have to withstand today is different to what was originally estimated when many bridges were built more than half a century ago. Today's globalized world has far more heavy lorries on the move than fifty years ago.
4Emme is part of a team working on a software project, weBridge, that allows local authorities to enter data about bridges under their jurisdiction and drivers to assess whether bridges on their intended route can withstand the load they are carrying. But as Martinello points out, the project born in February 2018 will only work if local authorities input the data.
Buy cheap, buy twice
The essential problem that has led to the perilous situation across Italy's, and much of Europe's, infrastructure network is that cheap isn't always good.
Governments, when issuing public tenders, favoured, and still do, bids that emphasize the most economically efficient proposal and the fastest turnaround. This meant good quality materials and durability were often overlooked.
This 'cut-price' boom invited seedy bids, often from criminal organisations, who had the disposable funds to win the bids.
"Public contracts managed by real criminal networks... having within them even representatives of the contracting authority are forever more," states a study by Raffaele Cantone, the head of the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC), on the entrenched role of the mafia and the 'Ndrangheta in public construction works.
The dramatic collapse of the Morandi Bridge has seen arguments about the role of criminal organisations in public infrastructure resurface.The Calabrian crime organisation the 'Ndrangheta is powerful in the region of Liguria, where the Morandi Bridge collapsed on the A10 highway on August 14th.
Martinello estimates than on average only 50 per cent of sanctioned materials actually go into major construction projects.
The problem persists. "In recent years the criterion of 'biggest discount' for the choice of winner in public tenders for infrastructure has been in frequent use," Plizzari told The Local. "This system could work in the presence of rigorous technical provisions and controls but could lead to a significant reduction in the quality of the work if the winner then has the freedom to modify some technical choices that become vital for a company that has offered a significantly lower than normal profit margin," he adds.
In brief, if you want it done fast and for peanuts you're likely to pay for it later. But who should pay for what?
"As we are now aware that no bridge lasts forever and that the problems are now well known from a technical point of view, the real issue to be discussed – not only in Italy – is a serious program of maintenance and inspections of existing bridges," says Plizzari.
4Emme's Martinello says no comprehensive census of Italian bridges has ever been conducted. Guidelines for maintenance have been redrafted several times, although "it is one thing to write guidelines, another to enact them," says the head of the inspection firm, which works with several Italian provinces and even Italy's government-owned motorway construction administrator ANAS.
Is the tragedy of the Morandi Bridge collapse, in which 43 people died, likely to lead to a census?
Plizzari argues that if the perils of the post-war construction boom are to be overcome, a national census born of political will is needed.
"In the coming years, we will see (or perhaps we are already seeing), the results of the construction criteria I described before when the reduced quality of the works will begin to manifest itself due to the degradation inevitably caused by the environment," he says.
The Italian government has announced that it is reviewing the 25 motorway maintenance concessions across the country with a view to nationalising its infrastructure.
The man who does the inspections isn't hopeful that a step forward will be made. "I'm convinced the government will not do anything," Martinello told The Local.
"There will just be more road signs with warnings."
https://www.thelocal.it/20180828/thousands-of-italian-bridges-will-be-in-crisis-in-the-next-20-years
And here again explained why it is doomed, by a French engineer and Professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), of Belgian descent:
Mediterranean plumbing explains the bridge of Genoa
19 August 2018 Jacques Neirynck Not classified
What happened in Genoa is improbable. There are still bridges built by the Romans, which have not been maintained and remain impassible through the centuries. On the other hand, in the same country, the same people built a bridge in 1960, probably requiring constant surveillance and maintenance, which were neglected and which led to its ruin, the death of 35 motorists and the disgrace of Italian institutions, including engineering schools. How is it possible ? To understand it, one must look at a detail that seems negligible: Mediterranean plumbing.
On the shores of the Mediterranean, plumbing fulfills every service imaginable except that which is expected. At the very moment you discover a new hotel room, you need to deploy an exploratory tactic to master the plumbing. Suppose first that it exists. In Greece or Morocco, I discovered rooms without the tap. In this case, the problems related to plumbing are reduced to nothing, which is the best solution.
If there is a sink and at least one cold water tap, the drama is already tied. Since it is not irreparably stuck by rust, open the tap carefully. As a general rule, no water will come out but a long moan of a beast in agony. This cry of despair is addressed to your neighbors and the management of the hotel: the tap stigmatizes you as being one of those Nordic tourists, keen on personal hygiene. After a variable time, the tap starts to spit a trickle of water, usually reddish. Do not panic, it's not blood, it's just rust. This incident demonstrates that local people have passed the Bronze Age and discovered the use of iron. So rather positive sign.
Additional hypothesis: the sink is also equipped with a tap decorated with a red cabochon, signaling the initial intention to reserve it to the flow of hot water. In general, however, the water remains cold, which is an advantage in the many cases where the cold water faucet does not work. By nature, if they work, hot water faucets deliver tiny liquid fillets so as not to waste a rare product. Sometimes the water is lukewarm. Very rarely it is really hot, even boiling. In this case, this is a mistake: get out of the hotel instantly. A bath heater may explode in the area.
Let's talk about the special difficulty presented by the absence of a mixer in the shower: the temperature of the water is controlled by cleverly playing both faucets. Assuming you can measure a temperature-tolerable water, it will vary as soon as another occupant of the hotel touches a faucet. Depending on whether it will open or close, suddenly the shower will become icy, which is not very good, or boiling, which may cost you shreds of skin. Insider tip: Learn to take only cold showers.
However, the construction of a bridge requires the correct implementation of a host of operations, including the most basic such as the maniacal respect of the implementation of concrete. If a maneuver cheats, eventually it can be disaster. The impossibility of a plumbing in the Mediterranean means that these people use techniques invented elsewhere that they have not mastered. A Roman stone bridge, yes. A reinforced concrete viaduct, no. If the plumbing does not work in your hotel, do not borrow the highways. If you care about your life
https://blogs.letemps.ch/jacques-ne...ie-mediterraneenne-explique-le-pont-de-genes/
In a nutshell, nothing to boast about!
Galactic Penguin SST
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Another difference with South East Asia is that construction norms and standards in Europe, don't allow much "flexibility", be it typhoon, quake, flooding or heatwave: thus buildings are prone to developing cracks due to heat-induced subsidence, to the point of collapsing.
Homes built on clay are particularly susceptible to subsidence during long, dry summers because trees and shrubs suck all the available moisture from the soil, causing buildings to shift on their foundations.
This week in France alone, 4'000 houses have been affected forcing some owners to flee to avoid being crushed alive!
http://web.archive.org/web/20190730...78616-9844-11e9-b239-d76fc9c9eb37-805x453.jpg ; https://archive.is/VG9pd/ce7cb83e519fa7ba341b13acbd87fb292c3a4580/scr.png ; http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-fr...mportantes-fissures-dans-les-maisons-20190626
▲ 1. French house presenting large cracks during the July 2019 heatwave.
http://web.archive.org/web/20190730...at&fit=max&s=55f09db6b5510c51e5f6e3f9f91da271 ; https://archive.fo/ijc61/67ab09465fe1378d5ee08936c2f2bbb07f599204/scr.png ; https://www.theguardian.com/busines...surers-expect-rise-subsidence-claims-heatwave
▲ 2. Homes across the UK have certainly been suffering as a result of the heatwave and in July alone reports of subsidence were up by 20% compared to the same time last year.
http://web.archive.org/web/20190730...minh_stilt_house-5832e2b43df78c6f6a4578a5.jpg ; https://archive.fo/18MFl/0cefda2dc8faf617ad941686978d821d9a93658b/scr.png ; https://www.tripsavvy.com/visiting-ho-chi-minh-stilt-house-hanoi-1629295
▲ 3. Uncle Ho Chi Minh's Stilt House, Hanoi, Vietnam.
beijingwalker
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Some people say Xinhua never report negative news about China and will cover up them instead.http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-10/11/c_138462874.htm
NANJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Three people have been confirmed dead and two others injured after a highway overpass in eastern China's Jiangsu Province collapsed Thursday, crushing three cars beneath it, local authorities said Friday.
The overpass collapse happened at around 6:10 p.m. at the section of National Highway 312 in the city of Wuxi.
The preliminary investigation showed one of the trapped cars, which happened to be parking under the overpass, had nobody inside. The three people in the other two cars were killed.
There were also five other cars driving on the overpass when the collapse happened. The vehicles including three sedans and two trucks were stopped by the guardrail on the overpass, leaving two injured.
According to rescuers and experts from the Ministry of Transport at the site, the overturning of the upper span bridge was caused by heavily-overloaded vehicles.
Hamartia Antidote
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..and other people just scream FakeNews all day.
8888888888888
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That bridge fell because the Truck was overloaded, they need to put a warning so drivers can see that it can only take a fixed amount of weight before it will collapse killing them in the process.
Galactic Penguin SST
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The OP is a known nut job beyond any possible cure, so don’t try and talk logically about his posts.
Having said that I would tend to believe there is a real problem with illegal overloaded lorries.
The same causes producing the same effects, worldwide, from Italy to France, and now in Russia!
Having said that I would tend to believe there is a real problem with illegal overloaded lorries.
The same causes producing the same effects, worldwide, from Italy to France, and now in Russia!
Bridges around the world collapse once in a while? But in Europe, they certainly collapse in series! And beyond repair!
Overloaded Truck Causes Bridge Collapse In Orenburg
3 Dec, 2019 14:34
Russian driver dodges death as bridge COLLAPSES in front of his vehicle (VIDEOS)
The chilling moment of an overpass collapse has been captured on dash camera by a lucky Russian driver who managed to narrowly dodge the falling concrete. While he escaped in one piece, two other people were injured.
The freak incident occurred in Orenburg, in the Russian Urals, late on Monday. The massive car overpass, measuring more than 100 meters (328 feet) in length, abruptly fell to its side, plummeting onto the road below.
Preliminary findings indicate that the bridge collapse was likely caused by the heavy dump truck that was carrying crushed stone, local authorities said. The overpass was undergoing repairs, and warning signs limiting the weight of the vehicles were in place. Despite that, a motorcade of three dump trucks entered the bridge which ultimately collapsed as the last one passed. It remains unclear why the truck drivers ignored the signs and why the overpass was not closed for traffic altogether during the maintenance work.
A criminal probe into the collapse has already been launched. Apart from the alleged overload of the truck, the investigators are also looking into potential irregularities during maintenance works. Since the bridge was damaged beyond repair in the incident, a new one will be built in its place, Orenburg governor’s office said.
https://www.*****.com/russia/474921-russia-car-bridge-collapse/
[Warning: Graphic]
Video showing clearly a car parked under the bridge, moment before the collapse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Maa9SuXaE
▲ 1. Dashcam footage of the Monday 2nd December 2019 Orenburg Bridge collapse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBfSAgWaTn0
▲ 2. Aftermath video footage taken from a drone of the Monday 2nd December 2019 Orenburg Bridge collapse.
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