Tacoma Narrows Bridge Tragedies

•September/2016 - After the layout of the gravel and topsoil has been accomplished the next process is to begin the building of any bridges over waterways and boardwalks to include low, wet spots that were unable to be dugout. Due to the use of equestrian or ATv usage the bridges will need to be structurally strong using items such as steel or high strength treated lumber.

Although the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is oft considered “the most spectacular failure in bridge engineering history”, it was far from being the first unsuccessful suspension bridge. There were ten prior suspension bridges that failed due to unaccounted wind/oscillating forces. However, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed 50 years after the last bridge, and it was the most expensive and longest- more than double any previous bridge- that is the reason why its failure is so significant. The remains of this bridge now serve as “one of the world’s largest manmade

In 1989, an earthquake caused the top deck of the bridge to collapse. This has raised concern in recent years in the case of a large scale earthquake. During an inspection in September of 2009, a 1.5 inch crack was found in a structural truss called an eyebar. The system of the truss is meant to distribute report will describe the tensile load from the weight of the bridge over 4 eyebars. One of them being broken, this same load was now distributed between only 3 eyebars. Because these eyebars were not designed to carry extra load, it became crucially important to repair the eyebar as soon as possible. However, because the bridge is so old, its mechanisms were more complex than what would be designed now in the current day. The engineering company C.C. Myers was contracted to do the repair. C.C Myers decided to repair the eyebar by welding a crossbar to the saddles which had been placed on each end of the broken eyebar (Alfrey, 2010). Four tie rods were then bolted to distribute the tensile load (Reid, 2010). This repair was completed in only 70 hours (Carlsen,

Burr arch truss that is a combination of an arch and truss which gives a strong bridge.

The second bridge I will be talking about is the Batman Bridge. The Batman Bridge is a cable-stay bridge

Just as with any system that has to be maintained, inspection is a big part. Before you can fix anything that broken in a system, you have to find the failure first. Same goes for bridges. In order for bridges to maintained and kept safe, routine bridge inspections have to be performed, and any problems that make the bridge unsafe have to be fixed.

During the construction, two half-spans being assembled 50 meters above ground level had a misalignment of 4.5 inches or 114mm in camber. It was suggested by John Holland & Constructions to use a kentledge to weigh down the higher section of bridge. It so happened that they had ten, eight tonne concrete blocks on site. These were placed halfway along the higher span to

The Bridge to the Other Side Caleb E. Jameson South Umpqua High​school Author Note This paper was written for Writing 121, Mrs Fye The San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge is a monument of human abilities, goals, and accomplishments. It is beautiful and a huge tourist attraction for many people inside and outside of the area. To some it is a symbol of their heritage and ancestors success; To some it is just inspiring to look at; To others it s a landmark to mourn over, because of loved ones that were stricken with grief and couldn't handle it anymore. That’s right, this marvelous work of art is used as a weapon and tool for suicide.. The government wants to make the Bridge suicide proof by using railings, nets, or a combination of the two. Three

Temporary loads are those loads, which are placed on a bridge for only a short period of

The construction process of our model suspension bridge went smoothly. We designed a blueprint that showed our bridge in a life size scale. The materials used to build our bridge included two 18 inch tall two by fours for the anchoring towers of the suspension bridge, one 30

It is shaped in a way to transfer weight to the towers and anchors with its tension (O'Connor, 1971, p. 372). Cables are made of high strength wires spirally bound to form a rope (O'Connor, 1971, p. 372). Vertical cable suspenders that are fastened to the main cables hang the actual roadway. Stiffening girders and trusses are along the side of the bridge to distribute concentrated loads and help to keep the motion of the bridge at a minimum (Troitsky, 1994, p115).

High rate of population grow and improvement in the technology forced individuals to move to rural area. As a result, they use more and more personal vehicles for traveling and commuting to urban areas and big cities each day. On the other side, most bridges in Canada and United States by now are more than 50 years old. Therefore, soon or later, rehabilitation or replacement on bridges are unavoidable (John R. Fowler). However, how to manage the bridge rehabilitation or replacement by having minimum effect on traffic is one of the biggest concern for engineers all around the world.

No design is perfect. The Oakland Bay Bridge consisted of two eight-mile long, suspension bridges. C. H. Purcell first built it in the 1930’s. According to Britannica Online, he originally had structural issues with the sinking to bedrock in the central anchorage. When repairing the bridge after Loma Prieta, the challenge was making it more seismically sound. The West Span of the bridge held up due to its suspension design. This led to the West Span being more flexible than the East. Bridges must have a certain level of flexibility, but not so flexible that extreme conditions would create another disaster such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse of 1940. The West side of the bridge was mostly in tension when the earthquake hit. Allowing the bridge to absorb forces and create equal and opposite forces of its own kept the West side of the bridge intact. However, the stiffness of the East Span of the bridge was too stiff to handle the brute force of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Having flexibility in a design allows for the bridge to react to outside forces. Being too rigid would give necessary allowance for certain

Foreword: I composed this brief and informal overview of truss bridges and Balls Bridge to put this beautiful historic bridge 's history and significance into context. A version of this document with full-color photos is available on my website 's Balls Bridge Page located at www.historicbridges.org/ontario/balls/index.htm which also has more information and photos. The general truss bridge information in this document was adapted from a formal research paper I composed. This paper, which cites the many different sources I used to produce the history of truss bridges, is available at www.historicbridges.org/info/intro/trusshistory_c.pdf in PDF format. The metal

Superstructure bears the load that is being passed over the bridge and it transmits the forces caused by the same to substructure. Load received from the decking is transferred on to the substructure by Bearings. They also distribute the load evenly over the substructure material as it may not have sufficient strength to bear the superstructure load directly. Piers and Abutments are the vertical substructures which transfer the load to the earth in the foundation. Wing walls and returns are constructed as the extension of