Time for a rant
This is not done yet but I am saving because there are power outages.
I do not like minimally built structures. And that is exactly what the freeway that collapsed in Italy was. Though such designs will work if nothing goes wrong, all it takes to destroy them is for one contractor to cheat, or one error to be made. Why build like that? For perspective, where this bridge collapsed the road bed was over 300 feet up. So how long was that span? Ridiculous!
Back in the good old days, before "highly educated" engineers worked all projects to look like "art" while building the thinnest "graceful" looking crap that could possibly do the job, roads were built that looked like this:
here's something to be said about the old school method, where things were made many times stronger than they needed to be, just to make sure it would last. And you can bet that when there's nothing but sand blowing in the wind, after this planet is abandoned thousands of years from now, THAT particular highway is still going to be there. Why not? If it can be done, why not do it? It sure beats what just happened in Italy. And contrary to logic, the materials are so cheap that it is actually cheaper to over build rather than do the fancy crap, and you'll have tons of room for contractors to cheat and you'll still be OK.
One great example of a bridge that got cheated while being built to minimum specs for the sake of "art" is the bridge in Boston. It was noticed that the spans were really long between supports, and people wondered. But assurances kept coming, "don't worry, it is the latest design, it really is strong enough, the most advanced materials were used, blah blah, and then it was discovered that the contractor cheated the concrete. Then the word was "don't worry, it is fine anyway, and to prove it they marched a heard of elephants across it for the grand opening. That's right. A herd of elephants. Which, with a combined total, weighed less than one multiple axle dump truck loaded with granite. Though it won't happen often (for sure), that bridge is just waiting for the right traffic jam, where it is loaded with bumper to bumper dump trucks loaded with granite. Then what? Probably what happened in Italy.
When I see thin and graceful construction, I don't say "wow, that's cool", I say, well, there are cars on it, and it did not fall for them so yeah, I'll go across it and hope. One such bridge was the one in San Francisco that collapsed in the 1989 earthquake. I went across that on the bottom span and kept saying, "damn, those support columns are super thin, what were they thinking?" and they guy I was with said "that's the latest construction, they are thin but super strong and are made that way so they won't fall in an earthquake. WHAT HAPPENED? Remember that! the people claiming that was a high tech design were full of crap. I said there's no way that's going to make it through an earthquake and I was right. I was just glad to be off the thing. Only a few months later the earthquake happened and down it went.
Yes, it is amazing that a lot of that stuff works without a problem. But why do it when you don't have to?
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