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  #741  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2014, 1:55 AM
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That's crazy. Looks like one truck is smart and the other not!
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  #742  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2014, 3:49 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by matt602 View Post
It's not just a work platform that they hit. Apparently they were driving with the dump box up and actually hit the structural girders of the bridge, in addition to the work scaffolding. That's why they're concerned about the structural integrity. One of the girders was ripped right off the bridge and totaled a different truck in addition.
From the photos I've seen, I think the girders that fell on the other truck were holding up the temporary work platform. Amazing that nobody was killed - that truck's driver was hurt, but if a girder had come down on a car there could have been fatalities. EDIT: the truck driver who was hurt is lucky to be alive, looking at this image:

Source

The structural members that were hit don't look like they support the bridge weight, but they do brace the arches which hold up the roadway. Hopefully there was no serious damage to that end of the arches from the stress of the collision (broken rivets, cracked steel). They'll need lots of time to inspect it all, never mind repair the damage or put up temporary bracing.

The dump truck driver has been charged with impaired driving. I can't imagine that will be the only charge.

This bridge opened in 1958, and while there have been many, many collisions on it over the years I don't think something like this has ever happened before.

Last edited by ScreamingViking; Aug 1, 2014 at 5:01 AM.
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  #743  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2014, 4:55 AM
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Originally Posted by bulliver View Post
The hell!? I thought end-dumps had a big flashing light and a buzzer on the dash that screams when the box is up?
Stupid cant be stopped by flashing lights. I hope this guy has criminal charges added beside impared driving.
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  #744  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2014, 4:53 PM
sa230e sa230e is offline
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I'm surprised he didn't hit an overpass or a gantry first. Even if he got on at Burlington Street he still would have hit the sign bridge at Eastport Drive and that would have clued him into the fact that his dump box was up.

Either that or it wasn't up and the platform he hit was low enough that it caught on the dump box and the forward momentum of the truck pulled it upright.
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  #745  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2014, 7:51 PM
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The Lasalle Causeway in Kingston, built in the 1920s to replace the Penny Bridge which had been around since the 1800s.



It's the sole link between the inner city and the eastern suburbs (other than the 401 which is in a rural area north of the city), and as a result the bridge and its approaches gets congested at rush hour--really the only place in Kingston where traffic congestion is actually a problem. There's long been a plan to build a new bridge north of the downtown core to bypass this one, but the city is hesitant to move forward for two reasons:
1) Very expensive, it will cost almost $200M which for a city the size of Kingston is a huge expense
2) There's a fear that it will just encourage suburban sprawl
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  #746  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2014, 8:35 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sa230e View Post
I'm surprised he didn't hit an overpass or a gantry first. Even if he got on at Burlington Street he still would have hit the sign bridge at Eastport Drive and that would have clued him into the fact that his dump box was up.

Either that or it wasn't up and the platform he hit was low enough that it caught on the dump box and the forward momentum of the truck pulled it upright.
As part of the current rehabilitation project, a series of four over-height sensors with flashing warning lights were installed on the QEW in advance of the skyway bridge. All four of these lights should have flashed warning the driver that they were over-height before they struck the overhead truss.

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  #747  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2014, 11:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sa230e View Post
I'm surprised he didn't hit an overpass or a gantry first. Even if he got on at Burlington Street he still would have hit the sign bridge at Eastport Drive and that would have clued him into the fact that his dump box was up.

Either that or it wasn't up and the platform he hit was low enough that it caught on the dump box and the forward momentum of the truck pulled it upright.
Perhaps he was just a bit too low for the gantries and overpasses because he would have passed under both coming out of Hamilton (not sure about the clearance difference between those and the construction platform under the Skyway's support structure)

Maybe the initial collision with the platform caused it to rise enough to hit the cross bracing, but people witnessed him driving with the box up. Many tried to warn him with their horns.

I would think there's lots of traffic camera coverage that the police can look into, to determine if he left the yard that way or if the box went up somewhere on the highway.

I wouldn't be surprised he missed warning lights (and wouldn't there have been some in his cab?), since he apparently didn't notice any difference in the way the truck was handling either. They haven't released how far over the blood alcohol limit he was.

From a Hamilton Spectator story today:
Quote:
Provincial police were still waiting Friday to examine the dump truck that triggered region-wide traffic chaos by crashing into an overhead truss on the Burlington Skyway.

Truck driver Sukhvinder Singh Rai, 34, from Brampton faces charges of impaired driving and driving with a blood alcohol level of over 80 milligrams. He is expected to appear in Hamilton court Aug. 22.

OPP spokesperson Sergeant Kerry Schmidt said police want to examine the vehicle for possible mechanical defects, but bridge safety concerns delayed the investigation.

It's not known who owns the truck, but an employee of Triple M Metal told The Spectator Friday the trailer on the back belongs to the company.

Witnesses reported seeing the box lifted as the truck was travelling up the skyway.

Industry experts said it might be possible for a driver of a moving truck to inadvertently raise the hydraulically-controlled box, which in some cases requires only a pulled lever.

"You might do it, but I don't know how you're not aware unless you're somehow incapacitated," said Milton truck transportation instructor Keith Black. "It's not like these things pop up like a shot."

And if the trailer did begin to lift it would be "impossible" to ignore because of wind drag and noise, said Gus Rahim, president of the London-based Ontario Truck Driving School.
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  #748  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2014, 8:22 PM
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She still requires permanent structural repairs, but Skyway will be open this evening:
UPDATE: Skyway Bridge to reopen between 6 and 8 p.m. (Hamilton Spectator)

Also, from that story:
According to Peter Verok, regional director of the central region MTO, the bucket of the dump truck that hit the bridge did not raise until the truck was climbing the bridge. There are censors in place a kilometre down the street and none was activated.
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  #749  
Old Posted Aug 13, 2014, 2:22 AM
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This incident brought a lot of attention to the bridge. It's too bad the province built a generic concrete and steel second span next to the original truss bridge--the architecture of the original bridge is significantly diminished by the generic second span.
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  #750  
Old Posted Aug 19, 2014, 7:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Junctionist View Post
This incident brought a lot of attention to the bridge. It's too bad the province built a generic concrete and steel second span next to the original truss bridge--the architecture of the original bridge is significantly diminished by the generic second span.
Yet the generic bridge is far superior in one respect - its idiot proof. And with the amount of irresponsible people driving the roads today I'll take a boring generic bridge over an architectural beaut(sadly).
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  #751  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2014, 3:34 AM
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Architectural value isn't correlated with whether or not a bridge can withstand reckless behaviour. But for that matter, the Burlington Skyway did just fine. The structural damage from the freak accident was quickly fixed, and we'll probably never see anything like that accident again.
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  #752  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2014, 10:41 PM
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A couple of pics of the Toronto-bound Burlington Skyway bridge post-drunken-idiot:



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  #753  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2014, 3:43 PM
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  #754  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2014, 4:01 PM
Allan83 Allan83 is offline
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That’s a picture that makes every Canadian engineer shudder.
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  #755  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2014, 4:47 PM
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Pont du Quebec is the finest (looking) in the country.
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  #756  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2014, 5:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MolsonExport View Post
Pont du Quebec is the finest (looking) in the country.
Pont de Québec
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  #757  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2014, 7:32 PM
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Originally Posted by MolsonExport View Post
Pont du Quebec is the finest (looking) in the country.
Just a little bit rusty and a certain lack of maintenance
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  #758  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2014, 8:26 PM
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I too have a certain affinity for the Québec Bridge. I read this book about the failures and eventual successes of the Québec bridge and I'd highly recommend it:

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Bridge-Qu%C.../dp/0253337615
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  #759  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2014, 6:09 PM
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  #760  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2014, 10:04 PM
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Came across this cool pic on reddit today of the new Port Mann next to the old Port Mann.

Really shows the size of the replacement bridge, given the context of being next to an existing 5 lane bridge that looks tiny in comparison.


New and Old Port Mann Through Fog by TranBC, on Flickr
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