Pittsburgh bridge collapse

[Slacker]

No deaths, allegedly? Wow.

Hard to believe, but incredibly good fortune.

Another look:

 

[Slacker]

And I hope we get a recap of that hellscape minute from the bus driver and passengers soon.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

 

[qtlaw]

My clients build these things and they are over-engineered to the hilt typically. However based on age, there is regular maintenance and inspections required (just like the Miami condo collapse). Thankfully no one was seriously hurt. Questions for me are Who was doing the maintenance? Who was doing the inspections? Were they at the corner bar throwing down whiskeys instead? This should never happen, ever.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Anyone here from Pittsburgh who knows about where this bridge is?

 

[Regan MacNeil]

I live there, but I've never driven across it.

 

[Driftwood]

The people in the red truck and car with it at the bottom took a dang ride.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Not from the area, but what I hear is that it's a jurisdictional mess, between the Port Authority, city and county.

my question is who owns the bridge, who's responsible for inspections and maintenance? It could be three entities.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Anyone here from Pittsburgh who knows about where this bridge is?

connects the Edgewood Swissvale area to Squirrel Hill and goes through a public park. It's not a major artery like the Parkway East or West which helps but it would still get pretty jam packed during rush hour. Buddy of mine lives in the area and said one thing that may have saved lives is that schools were in a two-hour delay because of snow. A case was opened on this bridge by public works in 2018 and was closed without any work or explanations.

 

[sgreenwell]

My clients build these things and they are over-engineered to the hilt typically. However based on age, there is regular maintenance and inspections required (just like the Miami condo collapse). Thankfully no one was seriously hurt. Questions for me are Who was doing the maintenance? Who was doing the inspections? Were they at the corner bar throwing down whiskeys instead? This should never happen, ever.

At least in Rhode Island when I was there, they knew what condition the bridges were in - bad. But it's hard to get approval for the money because it's boring - vs. dumping a bunch of money on pro sports funding - and once the project is approved, you're then dealing with people complaining about what an annoyance it is for everyone involved. Of course, the other elephant in the room for all construction projects is that they often go to lowest bidder, sometimes by law, when it's often better to just bite the bullet and pay for better workers and materials in the first place.

 

[qtlaw]

At least in Rhode Island when I was there, they knew what condition the bridges were in - bad. But it's hard to get approval for the money because it's boring - vs. dumping a bunch of money on pro sports funding - and once the project is approved, you're then dealing with people complaining about what an annoyance it is for everyone involved. Of course, the other elephant in the room for all construction projects is that they often go to lowest bidder, sometimes by law, when it's often better to just bite the bullet and pay for better workers and materials in the first place.

Low bidder doesn't necessarily mean its worse. On public works projects, there are inspectors all over the place all day, every day, especially on concrete structures like bridges, testing reinforcing steel, testing concrete materials, testing the concrete strengths after pours. In 31 yrs in the Bay Area, I've never been involved in a public works project that had a catastrophic event. Low bidder wins, but low bid or middle bidder, the scrutiny is going to be the same.

Now when you get to private jobs, the oversight and scrutiny is much, much less. IMPO, low bidder there gets you what you pay for because you are relying on the low bidder's abilities much more. In SF, there's the leaning tower of the Millenium Tower, where the oversight is not the same for a say public housing project of 70 stories, much different story. I'm not saying private jobs are going to be worse than public jobs, just saying that IF you go cheap, the effect is going to be much worse.

 

[swingline]

Any local Republican congressmen who voted against the infrastructure bill will sure be there when the repaired bridge opens, bragging about how they brought home the bacon.

Retiring GOP senator Toomey voted against it. WTF did he have to lose by voting for it?

That sweet maga pussy.