Montreal Tunnel ceiling collapse 1

[trainguy]

Another structural failure in my neighborhood...

When I was in my 1st year of Civil Eng. at McGill in 1983, one of my profs discussed the urgent need for inspection and maintenance of concrete (and other) structures because of the widespread use of de-icing salts. Talk about foresight.

Another one of my profs was Dr. Saeed Mirza, whom I believe the local media have on speed-dial, given the sheer number of incidents.

We'll see what the experts say...

tg

 

[Teguci]

"And while the exact cause of the collapse remained a mystery, two civil engineers were accusing the province of not properly inspecting the structure." - from the article


I always like to hear engineers jump to the conclusion that not enough inspections were done (sarcasm). I suspect that if inspectors had long term liability, they'd all be accusing the engineers of not doing enough engineering as was the case in Minneapolis and numerous other bridge failures.

I am OK with engineers speculating with other engineers. But our opinions to the public should be reserved.

 

[TXStructural]

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/5224451.bin?size=620x400

This image shows what appears to be precast beams supported on a ledge on the wall, supporting a series of precast panels (purpose unknown).

I wouldn't be quick to blame inspectors just yet, but I am curious about the wall repairs. All of the support appears to have been in small segments of the wall, and the story says they were undertaking wall repairs. This first makes me think it could have resulted from wall deterioration or the repairs themselves.

The ends of the beams and the supporting ledge are exposed to weather, which seems like an odd arrangement. If the failure was in the beam, I'd expect it to be near an end, in the exposed D-region. This configuration looks to be fairly easy to inspect, and I wonder what the reinforcement looked like in the original design.

 

[DamsInc]

Montreal has had significant problems with their infrastructure. There have been a number of failures of bridges/overpasses in recent years. I never read the report myself but I seem to recall one of the overpass failures was attributed mainly to poor construction (not built to drawings, weak materials), as opposed to the engineering design.

Perhaps an unspoken cause is the cost cutting measures of construction companies linked to organized crime in the past?

 

[ishvaaag]

DBond ... almost all construction companies big enough that one uses to think about lobby to one scale that could be labeled as "organized crime"... some are as astute that even try to do the work well!

Worth to mention: if you search in the web the meaning in sumerian of

RIKISTUS

you will find with some surprise that means contractor of the works for the city (-then state). So you became (become?) rikistus (rich) if you do constructio work for the public bodies.

And we have many sumerian words still standing: dame, dama, was lady as now is. 5500 years of human mores.

 

[Teguci]

Organized crime in Quebec again? I guess I should tell my Uncle that the FLQ need some more taxi rides.

 

[IRstuff]

That's just simply amazing that there are at least FOUR Sumerian dictionaries online.

TTFN

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