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from the but-lets-talk-about-their-aquaducts dept.
A long section of the towering Ponte Morandi Bridge completely collapsed in Genoa, Italy, on Tuesday, sending cars and trucks on the A10 highway crashing down below. Dozens of people died in the bridge failure, officials say.
As news emerged from the chaotic scene, the death toll fluctuated several times Tuesday. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said there were 22 dead, according to public broadcaster Rai News. But Italy's ANSA news agency has reported at least 37 people died, citing the fire brigade.
Workers have found bodies and vehicles in the massive amount of wreckage left by the collapse — and at least 11 people have been pulled from the rubble alive, Italian media report.
[...] The disaster struck shortly before noon, when one of the bridge's central pillars collapsed during a violent rainstorm. A witness told ANSA that lightning had struck the bridge before the collapse.
[...] The bridge was built in the late 1960s, at a length of more than 3,600 feet. It had recently been the subject of renovation and repair efforts. Italian roadway company Autostrade says the most recent work included consolidating the viaduct's base — a project that included installing a bridge crane.
Besides the obvious news value of this event, I'd be curious of any civil engineers or structural engineers could comment on the engineering behind such things. What causes these types of crumblings to happen, and exactly how reliable is infrastructure around the world?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16 2018, @08:31PM
I think, and I'm not qualified to say this, that a tension element failed on the yellow building side of the bridge opposite where the box truck stopped. The central tower on that side couldn't take the unbalanced load, and failed toward the truck side. That left portions of the deck suspended by the tension elements on the remaining tower and that tower failed under the axial load. The remaining decking snapped at the expansion joint and fell.
Why do I say that?
There is a piece of decking skewered into the ground perpendicular to the road surface on the box truck side. That was suspended from something. All of the other decking fell flat, and it looks like it fell toward the box truck side. The yellow building side tower is under most of the debris.
The non-yellow building side support tower is on top of the rest of the rubble.
The expansion joints are clearly visible on both sides of the remaining structure.
Someone should stitch all the images from this together into Photosynth so armchair engineers can 'fly' around it.