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Forums - General - Bridge collapses onto highway

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/maitland-pedestrian-bridge-collapses-on-highway/1451247.aspx

 

 

Police and emergency vehicles rushed to Maitland this morning where a bridge collapsed onto the New England Highway, crushing two trucks and a car.

It is believed the truck is carrying chemicals and police have sealed off the area.

The accident happened shortly after 11am.

Ambulance crews have taken some casulaties to hospital.

Police said a crane had struck the large concrete pedestrian walkway which crosses the highway near Devonshire Street, between Maitland park and the railway station.

Early reports suggested several people may have been injured, but police are still completing their search.

The bridge has landed on the highway, blocking both lanes of the highway and causing traffic chaos.

Police have set up road blocks as ambulance, fire rescue and hazmat units race to the scene.

A command centre has been set up west of the accident.

As the enormity of the situation sinks in police called for structural engineers to come to the scene to assist with shoring up the remainder of the damaged structure.

There were also fears that the bridge may have been "live'' as it brought down power lines and emergency crews from EnergyAustralia have been called in to assist.

More than 30 police from Maitland, Morpeth and Kurri Kurri are on scene assisting with the search and setting up traffic control.

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Updated news is that a cherry picker hit the bridge, it collapsed and landed on 2 trucks and a car... no one was on the bridge which is a mircale, since it is a busy bridge. There was a swimming carnival on accross the road and hundreds of kids had used that bridge to get there only a little earlier.

This was a couple of minutes from my house O_o

have never had any news like this happen near me before...



 

 

 

 

 

Check out my pyro tf2 vid :)

 

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Woohoo! Thank goodness we have enough money in our highway fund to fix these problems before they happen! Oh wait...we only care if people are killed and the word terrorist is involved.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

akuma587 said:
Woohoo! Thank goodness we have enough money in our highway fund to fix these problems before they happen! Oh wait...we only care if people are killed and the word terrorist is involved.

 

Yeah, wtf is wrong with our country not investing in telepathic education?!?!?! We could have stopped the Cherry Picker from hitting the bridge with our foresight!



wfz said:
akuma587 said:
Woohoo! Thank goodness we have enough money in our highway fund to fix these problems before they happen! Oh wait...we only care if people are killed and the word terrorist is involved.

 

Yeah, wtf is wrong with our country not investing in telepathic education?!?!?! We could have stopped the Cherry Picker from hitting the bridge with our foresight!

The engineers who designed the bridge should have accounted for that as an accidental load. They might have but fatigue might have just weakened the bridge significantly (not knowing how long this bridge had been in service or the amount of periodic stress it was designed to support). Whatever, this happens with a lot of bridges in the U.S. There is bridge near my city that was designed to support only 20000 cars per day but the actual load is at least 5 times that.

 



They should have taken into account that a Cherry Picker might hit it?

Damn, a lot more goes into designing bridges than I thought. What about a possible aerial attack? Rocket launcher? A charging rhino?

Just having fun. :P



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This is why i dont like driving on the Highway..



wfz said:

They should have taken into account that a Cherry Picker might hit it?

Damn, a lot more goes into designing bridges than I thought. What about a possible aerial attack? Rocket launcher? A charging rhino?

Just having fun. :P

 

Think of it this way.

If you design a bridge over water, and there is a possibility of a ship colliding into its support beams, an engineer would have to factor that in as an "accidental event". If the bridge isn't strong enough and it collapses because of that, well what are you going to do? It only has to happen just once.

If you live a region where an earthquake is possible, you better design your bridge to withstand one. This happened in my city where earthquakes are rare and thank goodness the bridge survived but major cracks appeared throughout the bridge afterwards.

Now, if the place where a bridge is being built has the possibility of cars crashing into it...

 

Oh yeah, if a bridge can withstand a collision with a vehicle, it can withstand a rhino. Not really sure about rocket launchers, never seen on in action.



totalwar23 said:
wfz said:

They should have taken into account that a Cherry Picker might hit it?

Damn, a lot more goes into designing bridges than I thought. What about a possible aerial attack? Rocket launcher? A charging rhino?

Just having fun. :P

 

Think of it this way.

If you design a bridge over water, and there is a possibility of a ship colliding into its support beams, an engineer would have to factor that in as an "accidental event". If the bridge isn't strong enough and it collapses because of that, well what are you going to do? It only has to happen just once.

If you live a region where an earthquake is possible, you better design your bridge to withstand one. This happened in my city where earthquakes are rare and thank goodness the bridge survived but major cracks appeared throughout the bridge afterwards.

Now, if the place where a bridge is being built has the possibility of cars crashing into it...

 

Oh yeah, if a bridge can withstand a collision with a vehicle, it can withstand a rhino. Not really sure about rocket launchers, never seen on in action.

 

What about an entire herd of Rhinos who have diamond infused horns and genetically enhanced bones and muscles?

The rest of your point was well taken, I was just having fun.



I mean this isn't the best example of what I was talking about as it seems to be a local bridge that wasn't intended to be that large to begin with. The driver certainly seemed to be a major factor.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

I blame George Bush


More trains, less cars



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