Washington I-5 bridge over Skagit River collapses

[MobBoss]

Tolls seem to be working great.

This wasn't a toll bridge. The newer ones that have are indeed working great.

 

[dutchfire]

The Atlantic had a report that said counties are neglecting their bridges on purpose, since there is a possibility the Feds will pay for repairs when the situation of a bridge gets bad enough.
USA #1!

 

[hobbsyoyo]

And abolish the space program.

Yup, that'll help as much as entitlement reform and reduce military spending combined!

 

[cav scout]

Yup, that'll help as much as entitlement reform and reduce military spending combined!

Every little bit helps. Kinda hypocritical to complain about spending priorities but give your own sacred cow a pass. Should we be driving toy cars around on mars when we have bridges collapsing? How about we provide for basic infrastructure to boost our economy, then we can worry about ET.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Every little bit helps. Kinda hypocritical to complain about spending priorities but give your own sacred cow a pass. Should we be driving toy cars around on mars when we have bridges collapsing? How about we provide for basic infrastructure to boost our economy, then we can worry about ET.

When driving toy cars on Mars becomes such a money suck as to interfere with infrastructure repairs, yeah then it'd have to go. But it doesn't and in fact leads to better materials to make bridges so they don't collapse so there's that.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I guess this goes here:

Trains collide and cause bridge collapse in Missouri.

Two freight trains collided at a rail intersection in Missouri on Saturday, triggering the collapse of a highway overpass when several rail cars derailed and struck a support pillar, a county sheriff's dispatcher said.

Seven people were hurt, including five in cars on the two-lane overpass near southeastern Missouri town of Chaffee and the conductors of the two trains, Scott County Sheriff's dispatcher Clay Slipis said.

"One train T-boned the other one and caused it to derail, and the derailed train hit a pillar which caused the overpass to collapse," Slipis said of the pre-dawn crash.

The crash, which involved BNSF Railway Co and Union Pacific trains, also sparked a fire when diesel fuel leaked from one of the train engines, Slipis said.

The crash came just over a week after a commuter train derailed in Connecticut, striking another train and injuring more than 70 people during the evening rush hour.

On Thursday, a truck crash caused the collapse of a bridge in Washington state, sending two cars plunging into the Skagit River. Three people were rescued.

Authorities said that officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were on their way to Missouri to investigate the train crash. Neither BNSF or Union Pacific officials could immediately be reached for comment.

 

[Formaldehyde]

When driving toy cars on Mars becomes such a money suck as to interfere with infrastructure repairs, yeah then it'd have to go. But it doesn't and in fact leads to better materials to make bridges so they don't collapse so there's that.

Do you have any evidence that NASA expenditures have "in fact" led to any improvements in bridge design or construction?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yawn. Really? Okie dokie

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/facts/ksc/nasaspinoff.html

Advanced Lubricants: Sun Coast Chemicals of Daytona, Inc. (SCCD) is commercializing multiple products based on a biodegradable, non-toxic lubricant it originally developed to replace the Space Shuttle Crawler's standard lubricant. The X-1R Crawler Track Lubricant (CTL) led to an industrial product line of 19 separate specialty lubricants. The first three industrial products were:

*Train Track Lube, used to solve wear problems for the Florida Power Corporation's railroad system;
*Penetrating Spray Lube (PSL), used in applications where spray lubrication was needed for rust prevention
*Biodegradable Hydraulic Fluid (BHF), which has an oxidation life of 10,000 hours. BHF is being sold through Motion Industries, the largest industrial maintenance and equipment supplier in the U.S., to DuPont Corporation, Kitchens of the Ocean processing plant, as well as the sugar, agricultural, pulp and paper, forestry and sawmill, marine, mining, and heavy construction industries. SCCD's newer retail product line has targeted the sports market, providing lubricants for gun cleaning, skates, air tools, fishing reels, bicycles, and an air conditioning retrofit kit. These spinoff products have been sold in retail stores nationwide

That took all of 5 minutes, you can do your own digging for more goodies. They are out there.

Oh here's something that could help pulling people out of collapsed bridges as well:

Rescue Tool: Rescue squads have an extrication tool to help remove accident victims from wrecked vehicles. The hand-held device requires no auxiliary power systems or cumbersome hoses and is 70 percent cheaper than previous rescue equipment. The cutter uses a miniature version of the explosive charges that separate devices on the shuttle.

This probably comes in handy during bridge construction:

Cordless Power Tools: A NASA requirement during the Apollo program, re-chargeable tools were developed to permit astronauts to do repairs in space.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It gets better:

Highway safety
Safety grooving, the cutting of grooves in concrete to increase traction and prevent injury, was first developed to reduce aircraft accidents on wet runways. Represented by the International Grooving and Grinding Association, the industry expanded into highway and pedestrian applications. Safety grooving originated at Langley Research Center, which assisted in testing the grooving at airports and on highways. Skidding was reduced, stopping distance decreased, and a vehicle’s cornering ability on curves was increased. The process has been extended to animal holding pens, parking lots, and other potentially slippery surfaces

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies#Transportation

Structural analysis software
NASA software engineers have created thousands of computer programs over the decades equipped to design, test, and analyze stress, vibration, and acoustical properties of a broad assortment of aerospace parts and structures. The NASA Structural Analysis Program, or NASTRAN, is considered one of the most successful and widely-used NASA software programs. It has been used to design everything from Cadillacs to roller coaster rides. Originally created for spacecraft design, it has been employed in a host of non-aerospace applications and is available to industry through NASA’s Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC). COSMIC maintains a library of computer programs from NASA and other government agencies and sells them at a fraction of the cost of developing a new program. NASA Structural Analysis Computer Software was inducted into the Space Foundation Space Technology Hall of Fame in 1988

 

[Silurian]

I have seen NASA developed system of groving the surface of runways to improve skid resistance at Gatwick and on concrete roads in the UK.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Yawn. Really? Okie dokie

In other words, you can't really find any civil engineering advancement directly related to bridges to even think about giving NASA credit for inventing or discovering? "Yawn".

 

[Silurian]

Robotic Waterjet System

This system could be used for striping paint off bridges etc, the mobile access would allow work to be done where access times are limited, the method of containing the removed paint would be especially usefull in removing paint above a river.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20020079124_2002127486.pdf

Intelligent Highway System

This is system is like the NMCS2 in the UK. If there is a stationary vehicle a camera automatically turns to it zooms in and the picture comes up on a screen in front of the operator. Then the operator can dispatch assistance if required. This is especially useful on bridges where there maybe no where for a broken down vehicle to pull off the road.


http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20020079165_2002127490.pdf

Weight Control for Highway Trucking

Less overweight trucks less damage to bridges.

http://spinoff.nasa.gov/spinoff/spinitem?title=Weight+Control+for+Highway+Trucking

 

[Formaldehyde]

These are all excellent examples of how the NASA PR department continues to look for new and imaginative ways to further the notion that there are a plethora of spinoffs from their research, nearly all of which would have obviously occurred anyway.

I am reminded of the running joke back during the Cold War regarding whether every single invention, discovery, or advancement was first done by the Soviets or the US.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

In other words, you can't really find any civil engineering advancement directly related to bridges to even think about giving NASA credit for inventing or discovering? "Yawn".

Apology accepted.

 

[cav scout]

These are all excellent examples of how the NASA PR department continues to look for new and imaginative ways to further the notion that there are a plethora of spinoffs from their research, nearly all of which would have obviously occurred anyway.

I am reminded of the running joke back during the Cold War regarding whether every single invention, discovery, or advancement was first done by the Soviets or the US.

But don't you know- all innovation comes from government funded research.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Current drug companies seem to be falling head over heels to demonstrate that. If you can show me a recent post with a successful innovation here by a drug company that would be great. I've been reading it intermittently for years and I don't think I've found such a post. Meanwhile, the universities will be continuing their basic biology and chemistry research that makes pharmaceutical R&D possible.

 

[Formaldehyde]

But don't you know- all innovation comes from government funded research.

Especially government-funded research where much if it is classified.

Didn't you know? We certainly wouldn't have bridges, roads, rechargeable power tools, computers, the internet, or even video games if it wasn't for the US government, the military, and those who will do nearly anything in hopes of some day being employed by them.

Current drug companies seem to be falling head over heels to demonstrate that. If you can show me a recent post with a successful innovation here by a drug company that would be great. I've been reading it intermittently for years and I don't think I've found such a post. Meanwhile, the universities will be continuing their basic biology and chemistry research that makes pharmaceutical R&D possible.

What is truly shameful is that the government essentially refuses to compete against them by doing pharmaceutical research of their own which would be in the public domain, thereby providing cheap and effective drugs to all people of the world at nominal costs.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Every little bit helps. Kinda hypocritical to complain about spending priorities but give your own sacred cow a pass. Should we be driving toy cars around on mars when we have bridges collapsing? How about we provide for basic infrastructure to boost our economy, then we can worry about ET.

Indeed, children somewhere might be starving possibly.

Spoiler :

 

[mrt144]

Actually, we use tolls here in Washington State to pay for them.

Depends on the bridge, you know that.

 

[MobBoss]

Depends on the bridge, you know that.

Of course I do, but my response was adequate for the comment I was replying to.