Built 1959 (?), hopefully the drawings haven't been lost. They should be able to remove the damaged piece and replace it without the bridge falling down lol.
richardmayes,
Sep 21, 5:00pm
The bridge is a truss - the diagonal webs of a truss are like links in a chain, just because 19 out of 20 links are in good condition, that doesn't mean you have a good chain.
And just because the chain hasn't fallen off the bicycle into the water (yet) that doesn't mean you have a good chain either.
The bridge hasn't fallen down, so obviously there is some other load path within the steelwork that is capable of carrying the self weight of the bridge + however much traffic weight was on the bridge at the time of the incident. HOWEVER the factor of safety on that will be a lot less than normal, and almost certainly less than design standards require.
Ask any survivor of the CTV building or the Pike River Mine how they feel about acceptance for reduced factors of safety in engineering. Oh wait, you can't.
harm_less,
Sep 21, 5:19pm
As stated earlier the affected area is best laser scanned with the data then used to make a replacement strut, including with accurately placed bolt holes and other fastening componentry. It is also likely they would do a virtual fitting and change-out within the scan generated modelling. Not a big deal for the right data processing tech's.
lyl_guy,
Sep 21, 5:31pm
Ah yes, the 'nippon clippons' I think they called them.
harm_less,
Sep 21, 5:35pm
Yep, they were manufactured in Japan back in the days when racial slurs were still acceptable.
lyl_guy,
Sep 21, 5:42pm
Nippon isn't a racial slur.
gph1961,
Sep 21, 5:55pm
are there pics of the damage to the truck?
apollo11,
Sep 21, 5:56pm
Why laser scanned?They didn't have cad software and stress analysis when they designed the bloody thing, it's riveted together ffs! Fit the new part with a couple of locating bolts and drill in situ. As it is, the damaged part isn't carrying load.
casualobserver,
Sep 21, 6:01pm
Confusing the absolutely acceptable and definitely not a racial slur - Nippon, with the ethnic slur Nip perhaps?
gyrogearloose,
Sep 21, 6:12pm
I saw Phil Goff on television saying what a big job a replacement tunnel or bridge would be - 7 to 8 years of planning - and I know there's bugger all planning going on.
Then he starts laughing. The man has no spine for the task.
socram,
Sep 21, 6:24pm
Well, Auckland is renowned for no long term planning or back up systems.
Water, rail, electricity, bridges, airport, hospitals, you name it.
How many houses have been built north of the bridge since 1959?
How many since the clip ons?
Sods law dictates that if there is only one viable crossing, for the majority, sooner or later there will be an issue.
For a supposedly first world country, infrastructure seems to lack way behind population and visitor growth.
bill-robinson,
Sep 21, 6:44pm
i know, we used to see them in the uk 40 years ago. motto; last week i couldn't spell engineer. now I are one. 2 months in a class room qualified them.
harm_less,
Sep 21, 7:00pm
Welcome to the 21st century. Laser scanning allows a millimetre perfect component to be manufactured which can be fitted in place without all the dicking around that onsite measuring and machining involves. Minimum personnel involved so H&S is simplified too.
apollo11,
Sep 21, 7:02pm
I've only had twenty five years design and manufacture for heavy industry. (Zero experience in bridges). This would be a 'before morning tea' job for some of the heavy industries overseas.
harm_less,
Sep 21, 7:03pm
You got that right. Auckland's urban growth has essentially been nailed together with a lack of redundancy built in. This fiasco would have been avoided if Auckland had a decent public transport (read: commuter rail) system.
paul861,
Sep 21, 7:06pm
trade qualified in fab and welding in the 80s, perfectly capable of knocking up 22tonnes over a weekend with the right tools and team, within half a mm from working drawings
harm_less,
Sep 21, 7:07pm
And it's a fair bet that many of those heavy engineering entities overseas have Kiwi expats in their portfolio.
apollo11,
Sep 21, 7:10pm
I gather you sell laser scanners?
paul861,
Sep 21, 7:11pm
never mentioned cheap, theres probably 100 engineering firms in auckland capable of down tools and sorting it immeadiatly with a quaility job, it could even be fabricated out of stainless, its costing a fortune having all those car crawling
apollo11,
Sep 21, 7:25pm
Perhaps. Some of the overseas guys I've worked with (S Korean, American, German) have been hugely impressive in knowledge and hands-on ability.
casualobserver,
Sep 21, 7:25pm
Says the person who has zero experience with bridges. FFS.
apollo11,
Sep 21, 7:31pm
I bow to your superior bridge construction knowledge. FFS
harm_less,
Sep 21, 7:32pm
No, I used to operate one and our engineering clients were blown away by the service we could provide for them, once they changed their mindset to digital data sets rather than 2D drawings.
apollo11,
Sep 21, 7:37pm
I've used a handheld 3d scanner to build a parts library, certainly a lot easier than trying to draw complex objects in Solidworks.
serf407,
Sep 21, 7:59pm
Might give the beams etc surrounding the damaged area an x-ray considering the age of the steel.
Have any strain gauges etc been put up on the bridge?
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