Mailvox: Hultgreen-Curie, architecture edition
Has it ever occurred to feminists that perhaps there is a very good reason for the glass ceiling?
If you think about it, what is this but an example of Merkel's Germany or May's Britain writ small? Or, to put it in even more brutal terms, Carly Fiorina's Hewlett-Packard....
You have probably heard about the collapse of a pedestrian bridge at FIU in Miami today. I was researching who the builder is, I stumbled across an article from yesterday celebrating the bridge’s construction.FIU pedestrian bridge collapses days after installation; police say multiple deaths, cars trapped.
Key quote from the female engineer/project executive, Leonor Flores (speaking about teaching her daughter that women can go into STEM):
“It’s very important for me as a woman and an engineer to be able to promote that to my daughter, because I think women have a different perspective. We’re able to put in an artistic touch and we’re able to build, too.”
Yeah, about that…
If you think about it, what is this but an example of Merkel's Germany or May's Britain writ small? Or, to put it in even more brutal terms, Carly Fiorina's Hewlett-Packard....
168 Comments:
She should have been home making tacos.
FIU is a superb exemplar of the modern American university, with students Leonor Flores, Roshawn Brown, and Dewan Hossain, and, of course, president Mark B. Rosenberg.
Oh, my (stronger expletives deleted).
Engineering does not give a damn for sex. Sea, sky, and land will kill you just as dead either way. From my perspective, they either botched the design (either of bridge or the end supports), fabrication, or sabotage. And with a structural failure this soon after installation, the problem had to be blazingly obvious. Civil engineering isn't aerospace work, you can work with a comfortable factor of safety.
A single error doesn't cause a bridge collapse of this magnitude. There are normally all sorts of checks in place to help prevent this sort of mistake, but those procedures are only as good as the people carrying them out. Yay diversity!
Apparently MCM built the bridge. The bridge was designed by a separate company, Figg Bridge Design. Initial assessment is that the horizontal part of the bridge (the span) did not fail, it was one of the support columns (a pier) that failed. What do you want to bet that they used cheap Chinese steel rebar in the support column? And that the supplied rebar will be found not to meet spec?
See here: http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/steel-producers-warn-on-chinese-rebar
"A significant – but unknown – proportion of the Chinese rebar sold in the UK contains boron in excess of 8 parts per million (ppm). Samples have been tested with boron at 30 ppm. The Welding Institute has now issued guidance that rebar containing boron in excess of 5 ppm requires changes from the normal welding techniques used.
The only way of telling which Chinese rebar contains boron is to test every single bar. Otherwise, fabricators cannot tell which welding technique needs to be used, experts advise. As such tests are not generally undertaken, there is thus a real risk that welded structures using Chinese rebar could fail, UK Steel warns."
Just saw a Cerno tweet stating that it is possible the steel used was substandard and from China (unsubstantiated at this point).
Already see /pol/ on Gab pointing out this is what happens with affirmative action hires.
Trust me, i'm an engineer !
https://youtu.be/rp8hvyjZWHs
Hultgreen-Curie: Cutting your throat smashing through the glass ceiling.
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We have 100 year old viaducts made of wood. Did they not design to the materials?
That article is like an incarnated spirit of Vox's snark got pregnant and birthed an infant onto the page. Everything about it just screams that it would have to been made up and published after the fact as a perfect parable told against diversity in the real world.
Leonor Flores - Hispanic woman
Crap I just realized female-empowerment could affect me directly because I have family there. Yikes!
Women should stick with being Interior Designers, even then many times it's too much emotion and not enough common sense. In my 20 years, all the engineers have been men, and common sense has been the theme throughout. It is idiocy to put someone in a position simply because they are a woman. Yeah, we can blame the Chinese steel all we want, the problem begins when you are hiring for the sake of diversity and not who can do the job the best.
Ah, I'm going to stop, I will only be speaking to the choir, albeit a great choir.
She's an architect? Did she have a structural stamp? Whoever stamped the structural drawings for that has a problem. If she doesn't have a structural stamp, and she stamped those drawings, she has a huge problem.
*grrr* I was watching the (local) news last night, and a new state supreme court justice was going on about how important it was to be a woman, etc.
All I could think was, "I don't care if you're a woman -- I care if you're qualified!" Same goes for engineers -- I want qualified engineers building things in this country, not diversity hires.
It's unlikely that bad rebar was the primary cause of column failure. In concrete that's under compression, the rebar carries almost no load. The job of the rebar is to delay catastrophic failure, but it can only do so much.
Likely possibilities include bad design that wasn't thoroughly reviewed, substandard concrete placed that wasn't discovered by the testing lab, and catastrophic geotechnical failure.
Why do these ttpes of things happen? Is it the individuals involved aren't actually competent? The people around them don't hold them to the same standards so they aren't questioned? A combination of both?
Which white male will be blamed for this one? We all know wise Latinas are superior.
God be with the victims and their families!
The bridge was only doing a couple of dozen feet per second when it hit the roadway. Carly flew HP to ground intercept at Mach 5.
I'm an engineer and worked with many immigrant engineers in tech (Chinese and Indian mostly).
They plain do not give a sh*t about doing the job right.
It's all about getting away with what you can and making sure you're long gone if something goes wrong.
Carpetbaggers down to the last one.
We desperately need a system to license engineers. If it saves only one life...
I definitely wouldn't want to have had any responsibility for QC/QA on that job, either.
Both firms involved in this bridge have past brushes with the court system.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/fiu-bridge-collapse-construction-firms-accused-of-unsafe-practices-10176596
Figg dropped a bridge it was installing back in 2012.
Luckily, this bridge was not to be opened for pedestrian traffic until 2019.
My initial reaction was to wonder who didn't get paid off. But sabotage, bad materials, and incompetence are all also possibilities.
Speaking of incompetence, Benji is yapping again: https://www.dailywire.com/news/28302/yes-tariffs-are-still-stupid-heres-why-ben-shapiro
Don't play too rough with him Vox. :)
With women and the prog children it's all about status without accountability, responsibility
From what I can see from pics in the news, the attachment of one side of the span failed. They were trying to be cutesy instead of sturdy.
And obviously we can't rule out the Russians.
I'm an Electrical Engineer, so structure isn't my forte, but isn't 950-Tons for a pedestrian bridge spanning 170' a little heavy?
That's almost 8-tons per foot...
The finest in Cuban engineering.
From their LinkedIn page:
MCM (Munilla Construction Management) is a family owned Construction Company specialized in General Building and Heavy Civil Construction with vast expertise building educational facilities over the last 30 years. MCM is the 7th largest Hispanic Owned contractor in the United States as ranked by Hispanic Business Magazine – 2012 and it employs over 700 personnel worldwide with a staff of roughly 200 employees in Miami-Dade County.
As an aside, I think we just found the perfect Chief Engineer for that bridge to Mexico Shitlibs have been telling us to build.
Not only did she fall at her primary task, but she failed to provide the "artisic touch" she supposedly brought as a womanwas well, that thing is (well, was) hideous.
Hey Vox, have you ever made a book or do you know any books that expose all of the supposed feminist icons in traditionally and overwhelmingly male disciplines like architecture, aviation, science, and the like?
VD: You're right this bridge collapse can be tied to feminism.
You're wrong about the reason though.
It's not women in stem, it's the fat acceptance movement
*drum roll*
This would not have happened in Wakanda.
@19
God also strike down the people who caused this failure.
@34
You mean rimshot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpaOy8b8X6A
First the mass-shooting and now a diabolical bridge in South Florida???
Hellloooo! Can we finnnally have a discussion about commen sense bridge control legislation? I’m boycotting all companies that ever use bridges. Bridges = Death #EnoughIsEnough
Maybe it was meant to be post-modern art?
They didn't use Chinese steel, and it's highly doubtful the female project manager was to blame. I know people who have worked for that builder.
Leonor Flores is also an FIU alumna. I expect to eventually learn that it was a no-bid contract, or that they explicitly award points for alumni- and woman-owned businesses.
“Project Manager” not to blame.
Man, I wish I could use that excuse, but alas, I have a penis.
@42
And a functioning XY chromosome.
@34 "it's the fat acceptance movement"
Are you suggesting the weight of numerous land whales caused the collapse?
widlast wrote:@34 "it's the fat acceptance movement"
Are you suggesting the weight of numerous land whales caused the collapse?
Except that there were no stairs or walkways connected to the bridge and it was not open to the public for another year.
My ex-wife goes to that campus. Not happy, that would be some serious douchebaggery for all the victims' sake. I will be keeping an eye out for the victim list, though. >.>
PS, she was a diversity admission. Her test scores were below the average needed for admission, but the doctoral program she applied for had literally no women in it, so they accepted her. SMH
We’re able to put in an artistic touch and we’re able to build, too.
I think the Greeks would call this an epic tragedy.
@4 Agreed, and my experience is that project execs don't have much to do with the project itself (or they shouldn't provided the project isn't failing). But perhaps this place is different. Be interesting to see the ultimate cause of failure.
She would get away with it if she were an evolutionary biologist.
Interesting ... from the link "celebrating the bridge's construction" at the beginning of Vox's post, there is a "artist conception" drawing depicting a vertical central support beam with distributed supports. From the collapse photos I've seen there wasn't a vertical central support beam. Assuming it was part of the original design, it would not have collapsed like this. Like magic dirt ... magic concrete isn't magical.
One of the first things I learned in my studies to become an engineer was this ancient Hammurabi’s Law:
229. If a builder build a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.
I believe this is one of the oldest laws known to history.
My first thought was China’s shitty steel, my second thought was shoddy (illegal) immigrant labor, then ‘minority owned’ business....
I didn’t even conisder female engineer until I saw this!
But it makes sense that all four of those Swiss Chees holes would line up to kill half a dozen people.
I read they were performing a "stress test" via a crane on the cable attachment points and suspect either cable to crane failed or attachment point on bridge failed dropping it..where the other points couldn't sustain shock. IF this is so.... who would do a stress test with live traffic running below ( or as it was, stopped at a red light ). Incompetence. Those poor folks below..
The West is dying because the left-wing is in charge and refuses to look at reality. The real world says you should always hire, promote, use the most qualified no matter the color or sex.
(sex not f'ing "gender")
Will the insurers pay out future lawsuits and, if not, when the state has to pay it out, you can expect the financial hardship be answered for calls for, yep you guessed it, more affirmative action to help the disadvantaged women and minorities.
Some diabolical circularity going on there.
Competent people wouldn’t. They’d do t at night while blocking traffic.
Hammerli280 wrote:Civil engineering isn't aerospace work, you can work with a comfortable factor of safety.
Not just "can" but "have to by law", in many cases. If I recall correctly, the safety factor of cables for passenger elevators is something like 11:1.
Looking at this bridge, it's (it was) a relatively new style of suspension bridge which eschews the catenary arch for cables direct to the roadway, and requires the roadway to carry the horizontal component of the cable tension back to some point. It looks like at least one end of the span was just resting on its support pier, so the force would have been carried by the roadway in compression back to the center pier where the cables anchor. It's not immediately clear to me what could have failed in order to produce the pattern seen.
Articles:
https://news.fiu.edu/2018/03/community-gathers-to-watch-950-ton-bridge-move-across-southwest-8th-street/120395
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/15/us/miami-bridge-collapse/index.html
Video:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/west-miami-dade/article205316174.html
Noah B The Savage Gardener wrote:those procedures are only as good as the people carrying them out. Yay diversity!
Given the names of the in-duh-viduals in the story, I suspect that this is going to turn out to be more about general minority incompetence than Hultgreen-Curie.
Mochierge wrote:We desperately need a system to license engineers.
It's called the "professional engineer" exam, and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the bridge drawings were signed by someone with "P.E." after their name. That someone is probably sweating really badly right now.
Every competent engineer knows the importance of using compliant materials. Every competent designer knows the importance of limiting 'artistic' design paradigms to the risk profile of a new construction. Every competent project manager knows the importance of checks and balances. As a petson who drives cars under bridges I don't care about sex or qualifications, I care about competence.
When it becomes more impotant for women to be in unsuitable STEM occupations than to check their own level of incompetence, disaster is inevitable.
College gender quotas in STEM = systemic decay from within. Something speciific will be blamed for the record, but I guarantee that there was more than one incompetent thing that led to this disaster.
This collapse is about a failure of accountabity. It has little or nothing to do with cheap Chinese materials. They'll always be there. Ever tried to check and balance a gender quota engineer if you're a man (or a lower-status woman, for that matter)?
Gender quotas in STEM are synonymous with decay. It's only a matter of how, where and when. Incompetent women will be well defended and twice as hard to hold accountable after the fact than before. Better to call them out before rather than after and save lives. Men do this all the time with each other.
Hold an incompetent woman accountable today and save lives!
From the Code of Hammurabi:
229 If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.
If she was took credit for it as a woman and bragged about her "different perspective", now she should also take responsibility for the failure.
The press release made it seem as if she both designed and built it with a female-only team: "We’re able to put in an artistic touch and we’re able to build, too".
Whom am I kidding, the blame will go to the white Hispanic construction workers who sabotaged her due to misogyny.
Speaking of incompetence, Benji is yapping again.
He's not only stupid, he's dishonest. I'll shred that article tomorrow, effortlessly.
No wonder the little coward runs from debate. He's absolutely, haplessly incompetent.
Señora Flores: "I don't understand. The scale model that I made out of marzipan worked fine."
Assistant: Is this data in metric or english units?
Leonore: Just compute the thingy and tell what you get!
When scientists screw up, an embarrassing paper gets retracted.
When engineers screw up, people die.
Evidently they were carrying out some kind of "stress test" on it.
And didn't close down the whole area around, just in case.
I'm ... not entirely sure how it's possible to be that stupid.
OMG, WHAT A SURPRISE (NOT)
"Two companies involved in building the bridge that collapsed Thursday at Florida International University have been accused of shoddy work resulting in bridge collapses in recent years."
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/15/munilla-construction-management-figg-bridge-engine/
@63 If true, lots of people probably knew this was a horrible idea and were panicking because there were no budget and schedule provisions for shutting down the street and diverting traffic.
Reminds me of the scene in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" where the train broke down inside a tunnel and around six hundred people suffocated. Broke down due to socialism writ large.
#gravitydiscriminatesagainstwomenandminoritygroups
@56 They hadn't even hung the cables yet. The part that collapsed was just half the span. They still had to build the central spire, place the other half of the span, and then hang the suspension cables.
Looks to me like the spans were constructed as pre-cast and assembled on site into a single unit before being placed on the abutments.
There are hundreds of things that could have gone wrong here.
Simple as it seems, good functional civil engineering on this scale isn't something that just any fool can pull off properly (as we're seeing).
It's unfortunate, but we're going to see shit like this more and more often as the STEM fields and construction become ever more burdened with diversity hires and illegals as the workforce.
H-P, Lucent, Yahoo, Theranos.....
@60
Don't let him run, then! You said in one of your Darkstreams you have dirt on that little weasel coming to you, crying to you, about a crises of faith he was having about how he didn't believe a word he was saying and was just spouting conservative boiler plate for money and recognition! Release the emails! Crush that weasel! You admitted he was a net drain! What are you waiting for, him becoming the head of Conservative Inc so that when he falls, he takes that whole rotten house with him? Why? You know how much damage he can do and is doing in the meantime?
Place I worked at hired a woman "engineer", total AA hire so they promoted her
Not their first bite at the rotten apple:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/15/munilla-construction-management-figg-bridge-engine/
"Interstate Bridge collapses, 30 dead. Minority Female Engineer hardest hit.
The bridge is described as iconic, which means an original design, which also means there could be a design problem. But what is likely is the contractors were the problem. That would be the ones who took the bid or subcontract bids, not the low level guys who do the grunt work. They take bids and save money by cutting corners. If not watched a lot of them are given to that. This is such a routine problem that the people who have to be alert are the folks who put out the bids. You don't just turn it over, you have somebody familiar with design and materials inspect on a regular basis. If it is genuinely an all female or otherwise rookie team they probably lacked the experience necessary to supervise the contractors. That is where the cure has to be because you are not going to cure the contractors.
The other possible cure is to be selective in who you hire. That is apt to mean not taking the lowest bid. Even if the contractor is at fault, cure has to be with the people who put out the bids because that is what can be fixed. Yea old buyer beware in the building trades.
> Evidently they were carrying out some kind of "stress test" on it. ... And didn't close down the whole area around, just in case.
The negligent homicide lawsuits in this affair are going to be epic. The design team, the contractors, and the public officials who allowed the stress test with live traffic.
we're going to see shit like this more and more often as the STEM fields and construction become ever more burdened with diversity hires and illegals as the workforce.
I've seen opinion that this burden of incompetence and conflict is why America can't build anything anymore.
Maybe if we can get enough backlash over it, we can free ourselves of the affirmative action, "disparate impact" and "diversity" mandates. If they were going to work, they'd have worked by now. #TimesUp
This is not the first time something like this has happened in Miami.
Several years ago, a nearly-completed parking garage at the Doral campus of Miami Dade College collapsed, killing four construction workers:
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/10/10/garage-collapses-in-doral-at-miami-dade-college/
The structure was torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.
During construction, a small portion of the new garage came down:
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Construction-Collapse-Reported-at-Miami-Dade-College-375875631.html
It has since been completed and is now in full operation.
Corruption in Miami is endemic. The city and the county governments have been controlled by the Cuban "exiles" for many decades now. (Fidel used to call them the "Miami Mafia.")
Cubans, unlike Anglos, take care of their own. Mutual backscratching is the norm.
(By the way, do not confuse Cubans with Mexicans.)
"The other possible cure is to be selective in who you hire. That is apt to mean not taking the lowest bid."
Public entities rarely have that option though. They can reject bids due to irregularities but are generally required to accept the lowest bid that meets all published criteria. People often complain about the lowest bidder building something, but the alternative is uncontrolled graft.
Much of the race-to-the-bottom dynamic can be stopped if honest, competent inspectors are provided on site full time. But most cities and private developers choose not to do this because it costs a lot of money, and they also know that contractors will raise their bids if they know that inspectors will actually prevent them from cutting corners.
@62 Dirk - "When engineers screw up, people die. " - when I went to Mudd the engineering department never awarded partial credit to answers on tests. Because, they explained, didn't matter if you "got the method right" but screwed up the calculation since "your bridge would fall down". (Wonder what it's like there now ... they've been on quite a diversity push for awhile ...)
Shitavious Lordecai wrote:She should have been home making tacos.
I bet those fall apart too.
they also know that contractors will raise their bids if they know that inspectors will actually prevent them from cutting corners.
Feature, not bug. You want the corrupt to overbid to get their cut, and be underbid by the honest.
Broward videos released ...
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/15/broward-county-releases-cctv-video-of-parkland-school-shooting-and-school-deputy-inaction/
"If I recall correctly, the safety factor of cables for passenger elevators is something like 11:1"
I'm an Electrical Engineer and even I know that safety margins for many bridges can be 100:1 or more. My Civil Engineer buddy assures me that the margins are the only holding these up in some cases.
Matriarchy is gonna suck.
You just had to drop the F word on me, didn't you? May God forgive me, but I hate that effing F woman. I was working at HP when she got the CEO spot. First thing she did is add the word "Invent" to the HP logo. Then she started firing all the inventors. Most jaw-droppingly cynical move I've ever seen.
She bought Compaq so that she could use "lateral transfers" from Compaq to dilute the established HP management structure, which was resisting her tooth and nail. There was nothing that woman would not do to destroy the culture of what had been one of the most innovative of the Silicon Valley tech giants. She acted as though she hated the company she was charged with leading...and I really think she did hate it. Maybe the reason for that was that most of the tech people were men, and management was pretty much white and male.
Under the F regime, there would be layoffs every three months. This in a company that had a proud tradition of never laying off people. After the first one, which gave the impression of eliminating some actual deadwood, who was chosen for elimination seemed to be completely random. See, it wasn't as though you could work really hard, get good reviews, and buy immunity to being laid off. It didn't matter what the quality of your work was. Essentially, the company was saying in the most direct and clear manner possible: "We don't care about you or your work. You are disposable. You are interchangeable. You are nothing.". It was pretty bleak, and had the kind of effect on morale and personal relationships that you can well imagine.
The timing of the layoffs strongly suggests that their actual purpose was to show "cost cutting" in the quarterly report. After the report was out, they'd hire more people--but not the same people. Cheaper people, like H1B contractors.
When they finally got to me, it was a relief. I was outta there. But the F name is still anathema to me, and I'm not alone. At least they aren't mentioning her as a possible presidential candidate any more. Considering how many people she antagonized (as in hundreds of thousands of HP employees), maybe that's a case of payback. I like to think so.
If the project failed, the "project manager" is at least partly at fault, period.
@83
Yeah. Like NEMA vs. EIC.
"We’re able to put in an artistic touch and we’re able to build, too.”
She is classifying men as lacking in artistic aptitude, I believe.
I think the new world will be PINK!
Karl Denninger Skewers Feelz based engineering
I and many others have used the bridge building analogy for the real world and engineering often but until today it wasn't in an ironic sense.
Well, there's still Theranos. Oh, wait...
Sidehill Dodger wrote:At least they aren't mentioning her as a possible presidential candidate any more.
They tried to talk it up, but polling found a dedicated, hard core of anti-Fiorina activists in every location that had ever had an HP office. People who weren't afraid to bad mouth her loudly, in public, with lots of local examples of how she had screwed her employees, how she had screwed the investors, and how she hand destroyed HP.
If only there was more and better civility, there would be more and better civil engineering.
Hope and feeling it should not collapse isn't a plan. I was in MN when the I-35 bridge collapsed. We've learned nothing (or worse and Lind's latest missive at TradRight shows).
About 10 years ago my uncle installed a bunch of a/c units in miami after a couple of hours on the phone with the lost inspector he tells my uncle I'm going to sign off the permit make sure the units are tied down
As Stan Adams points out, corruption in Miami construction is legendary. The bureaucrats and politicians would much rather hire corrupt, shoddy contractors because they can keep those bribes flowing.
TradRight?
Is that a blog or periodical? Can you send us the link, please?
Tell me, are bridge collapses a social construct too???
"We’re able to put in an artistic touch"
Like Jackson Pollock?
The largest amount of money I’ve made on stocks was from predicting HP stock would tank after Fiorina was announced as the new CEO.
Other than by destroying HP, she didn’t disappoint.
Think of how many young women this story will inspire.
@70 Vox has stated previously he doesn't betray a confidence, regardless of the source, so I guess it depends on the context of the email or whatever.
@AnvilTiger If the CIA bridge had Federal participation it would be subject to Buy America certification. Inclusion of that steel would cause the Feds to "non-par" the job. Falsification of those documents can result in some hefty prison.
Somebody had to stamp those plans, not a student. My bet would be shoddy work/materials/inspection in those piers. Not the designer side but the construction. I'm also betting some jail time is going to be served.
Sure, let's not bother stopping traffic while we stress test our 950 ton bridge that isn't even fully connected yet. What could go wrong?
This level of criminal negligence should not only end careers but result in at least several prison sentences. Odds on that?
Looking at this picture of the span being placed, I'm unsure whether the engineers who designed the structure passed sophomore statics:
https://twitter.com/chuckstrouse/status/974371866147254272/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fsarahd-313035%2F2018%2F03%2F15%2Fwhoa-these-disturbing-details-make-deadly-fiu-bridge-collapse-even-more-tragic%2F
Arthur Isaac wrote:I'm also betting some jail time is going to be served.
This is Miami. Do not bet on that. Seriously. And if someone does go to jail it will be a low-ranking employee.
@rycamor if the NTSB is as corrupt as Miami we have bigger problems then a bridge.
After thinking about this for a bit, this is, so far as I can tell, God's own gift to shitlording, in about ten different ways.
@99
What? Is that supposed to be code for The Littlest Chicken Hawk or one of his Chicken Hawk buddies having dirt on Vox too?
"Is that supposed to be code for The Littlest Chicken Hawk or one of his Chicken Hawk buddies having dirt on Vox too?"
No, it's code for "conscientiously and intelligently utilizing resources".
I'm an engineer too. I can vouch for that.
And yes, doing stress testing with the entire mid support structure for the bridge missing was pure genius.
Arthur Isaac wrote:@rycamor if the NTSB is as corrupt as Miami we have bigger problems then a bridge.
Maybe not, but look at the story about one of the construction companies (Figg). They literally had a section of bridge fall 40 feet during construction, narrowly missing killing some workers, and all they got was a $28,000 fine.
One American News Network carried video of local law enforcement higher-up saying that once they get all the bodies out from under the bridge, their homicide department will be conducting and investigation to figure out who to hit with criminal charges.
Too many possible failure points to pick one now, especially during some type of a test where who knows who might be in charge. As nearly everyone above has said, the engineering aspects of structures like the bridge is well known as are the procedures. I only hope that we actually find out what the real failures were, not some cover-up excuse of the real reasons.
Uh, I hate to break it to you...
Like the Naval ships colliding, this isn't a one-failure show.
There are so many different safety protocols, inspections, and redundancies in place that things like this can only be the result of multiple systematic failures.
Well, what is our social system for preventing failures of the institutional systems that are supposed to prevent engineering and operational failures? That seems like an important thing to identify and nurture, and not undermine.
Uh, I hate to break it to you...
Say it or shut up, Brett.
45. Chris Mallory March 15, 2018 5:52 PM
Except that there were no stairs or walkways connected to the bridge and it was not open to the public for another year.
Land Whales induce gravity waves. therefore, Land Whales *below* the bridge will induce out of design stressors.
48. Theproductofafineeduction March 15, 2018 6:07 PM
and my experience is that project execs don't have much to do with the project itself (or they shouldn't provided the project isn't failing).
"Leonor Flores ’98 is a project executive and one of 63 FIU alumni who work for MCM, the construction firm building the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge"
she's not just a college alumnus, she's not just the bridge designer. she's also an exec with the general contractor doing the work.
she's probably on this job site every single day.
Pity she's not familiar with Western Europe.
Or she might realize that boring white dudes have been putting that artistic touch for centuries.
this is like asserting that Pope Francis doesn't know what a Crusade is.
she knows that Men have created exquisite beauty in their constructions.
she doesn't care.
Who the hell uses concrete for a pedestrian bridge?
Leonor Flores and MCM, thank you for your contribution to the Trump2020 landslide.
What an absolute pile of fail.
Q: What's the difference between first world and third world construction?
A: First work and third world people.
Sturdy safe bridges are so patriarchy.
That's almost 8-tons per foot...
I'm a mechanical engineer writing software for a living, but I think concrete weight about 2 tons per cubic yard. So 3 ft thick and 12 feet wide = 8 tons / ft, without counting any rebar (perhaps our wise Latinagineer forgot to use it...)
Girl fail.
James Dixon wrote:Speaking of incompetence, Benji is yapping again: https://www.dailywire.com/news/28302/yes-tariffs-are-still-stupid-heres-why-ben-shapiro
Don't play too rough with him Vox. :)
But I want Vox to eviscerate him... then stuff the entrails back in and eviscerate him a second time.
VD wrote:Speaking of incompetence, Benji is yapping again.
He's not only stupid, he's dishonest. I'll shred that article tomorrow, effortlessly.
No wonder the little coward runs from debate. He's absolutely, haplessly incompetent.
Sidehill Dodger wrote:See, it wasn't as though you could work really hard, get good reviews, and buy immunity to being laid off. It didn't matter what the quality of your work was. Essentially, the company was saying in the most direct and clear manner possible: "We don't care about you or your work. You are disposable. You are interchangeable. You are nothing.". It was pretty bleak, and had the kind of effect on morale and personal relationships that you can well imagine.
This is the ultimate end of what I'll call "The Human Resources Mindset" -- the 'replaceable cog' is deadly to both loyalty and innovation; the first because as a "replaceable cog" the employee isn't owed any loyalty himself (and therefore undermines any loyalty towards 'the company'), and the latter because its easier to replace someone who will "go with the flow" rather than endure the disruption of innovation.
Latinagineer is good.
Vagineer is better.
Vagineer is better.
You are quite correct. Vagineer is awesome.
Latina Vagineer Barbie says "Math is hard."
Say what you will about Oregon's "good ol' boys' network," but they can put up a long pedestrian bridge, over an interstate freeway, with lots of wacky terrain, and it stays up. And if we want it to be artistic? WE PUT ART ON IT
It's just plain stupid that they didn't have some temporary supports in place after they set the piece. Especially if they're going to have traffic moving under it. Someone needs to go to jail for this effup.
Azure Amaranthine March 15, 2018 10:31 PM
And yes, doing stress testing with the entire mid support structure for the bridge missing was pure genius.
That was only half the bridge. The support nearest the river is the center support. Having seen how the first half of the bridge was raised in place, I have no idea how they were planning to lift the other half. The same lifting process wouldn't work. That's assuming the other half would also be a prefabricated section.
Today's daily meme war 3/15 is rather related to the wrong people doing the wrong work and what happens? Fraud/Death/Chaos.
The "glass ceiling" protects human lives, women voting, driving, having access to excessive credit/$$ and dictating public to monetary policy is literally deadly.
The Austin bombings to this tragic horror show in FL have to be related somehow but probably not, its just appears that every holy season (consider Ash Wednesday) Evil blended with incompetence takes hold. Keep the faith, love the truth.
Men create the most amazing things for us women to enjoy as women bear beautiful children which balances out what beautiful. the left or whomever want to tear it all down.
Men build, create and stabilize amazing structures within in cultures, buildings, everything, our men taking the place of Lord meaning acting so swiftly in ideas, plans, execution and the quick appearance of something new, something to make our lives easier, alt tech, alt writing, I remain proud of our men.
(Excellent recent peri, very happy about alt hero, ark haven, Dixon's and Arroz's work to so many others, wow, wonderful work!
When I talk about culture shock and being unable to have local or national tv at home aside from tv for Nioh, its due to how deceptive, ugly and depressing to utterly oppressive 90% to 99% of all of print media -dumbed down newspapers- and visual media remains, its just awful.
The same with the phone given its an inconvenience but there is skype. I am so drained by the worship of ugly wicked evil art and the torment of twisted re makes of movies and books. I really didn't believe Oprah was on some cover for a wrinkle in time as I took a 2nd look at the shape of the damn water because I could not fathom these wicked people are now just great with trans species romance.)
If only she'd used as many redundant supports as there are made-up genders...
Latigo3 wrote:Women should stick with being Interior Designers, even then many times it's too much emotion and not enough common sense.
When enter someone's living room and there are so many scatter cushions that you can't sit down...
Thirded
You are all misogynists! Don't you know that feminists' feelz is much more important than the lives of those pedestrians.
Underdesign of falsework for bridge support prior to adding the structural cable system above the bridge, combined with failure of the lower deck pretensioning system.
Watch this vid: https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=ssd8Q_1521180310
Watch it slow. You see an initial slump as the lower deck fails in tension, and then it all comes down.
Don't let him run, then! You said in one of your Darkstreams you have dirt on that little weasel coming to you, crying to you, about a crises of faith he was having about how he didn't believe a word he was saying and was just spouting conservative boiler plate for money and recognition! Release the emails! Crush that weasel! You admitted he was a net drain! What are you waiting for, him becoming the head of Conservative Inc so that when he falls, he takes that whole rotten house with him? Why? You know how much damage he can do and is doing in the meantime?
Stop being so histrionic. Ben Shapiro can only do as much damage as conservatives permit him to do. If they choose to listen to him, let the consequences fall on them. They deserve it.
Now drop it.
"That was only half the bridge. The support nearest the river is the center support."
I'm aware, but the mid pylon had support cables running to about 60-70% of each individual half, and it wasn't there yet.
CoolHand wrote:It's unfortunate, but we're going to see shit like this more and more often as the STEM fields and construction become ever more burdened with diversity hires and illegals as the workforce.
And the infinitely maddening thing is that the left will NEVER come close to admitting this. Just as with socialism/communism there will forever be a narrative that diverts blame; most likely some assortment of bigotry from white men, of course.
Dirk Manly wrote:One American News Network carried video of local law enforcement higher-up saying that once they get all the bodies out from under the bridge, their homicide department will be conducting and investigation to figure out who to hit with criminal charges.
That sounds good, until they run into the political wall.
"Wait, you mean that diversity hires and brown women [he says redundantly] are at fault for this? We can't prosecute them. Our whole narrative will fall apart."
Azure Amaranthine wrote:There are so many different safety protocols, inspections, and redundancies in place that things like this can only be the result of multiple systematic failures.
Yes. Unfortunately that just plays into their hands in diverting blame from the proper parties. They can muddy the waters so badly that this will just go away, eventually. (Barring some Trump-led Fed involvement.)
Of course these situations are always complex, and that's why the leader(s) were held accountable. But our society has allowed leaders off the hook for so long now (for the greater good, don't-cha-know) that these problems are par for the course now.
@140: The FIU bridge fell because Stalin collectivized the farms.
It's rhetoric, of course, but colceptive or euceptive. It is a simple historical fact that millions of innocents died from the lie that the high producers were just hording the means of production, and anyone could do as well in their place.
(I know it doesn't make sense at first. Baffle minds to open them.)
"...but corceptive or euceptive."
Here is the problem with the bridge in a nutshell:
"It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse of a $14.2 million structure FIU had touted as an innovative “instant” bridge because of construction techniques intended to speed up the work and minimize disruption to commuter traffic. "
Bridges are old & stable technology. I would guess at least 100,000 bridges like this have been built without incident. You just follow the time tested procedures and specs for a bridge like this and there will be no problems.
But, someone had to innovate.
(I know it doesn't make sense at first. Baffle minds to open them.)
If you're explaining it, you're utilizing bad rhetoric.
"Looking at this picture of the span being placed, I'm unsure whether the engineers who designed the structure passed sophomore statics:"
Are you kidding!? I could eyeball that and tell it wasn't sturdy.
Maybe we should go back to the Roman method. If you built a bridge for the Legion you got to stand under it while the troops marched over.
If she was took credit for it as a woman and bragged about her "different perspective", now she should also take responsibility for the failure.
Now that's comedy! I laughed for real.
Bet their breathing sighs of relief that one of Hammurabi's laws is not in effect:
If a builder builds a house (bridge) and the house (bridge) collapses and causes the death of the owner user of the house bridge -- the builder shall be put to death.
@150 And, that particular reference is from Skin In The Game, Taleb. Highly recommended.
Seems they were doing a stress test when it collapsed.
1. Why stress test when there is traffic underneath?
2. Why were support cables "loose" in the first place?
3. Why had they not installed the final supports?
I think women have a different perspective. We’re able to put in an artistic touch and we’re able to build, too.”
I know, all that other architecture, like that stuff from, you know, patriarchy, was just so ugly until female artistic vision came along to improvament and prettify.
They’ve been smelling their BS for so long they forgot how bad it stinks.
Remember https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-rep-calls-miami-third-world-country/? He gave then-Governor Please Clap the sads. But he was right.
> the first because as a "replaceable cog" the employee isn't owed any loyalty himself (and therefore undermines any loyalty towards 'the company')
Companies have long ago forgotten that loyalty is a two way street.
"Companies have long ago forgotten that loyalty is a two way street."
Yep, God doesn't play that game either...
"With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward." Psalm 18:26
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3. Why had they not installed the final supports?
Because the center support pier for the cables is not designed to sustain large bending loads. You need to tension the cables on both sides at the same time. It couldn't be done before the second span was emplaced.
2. Why were support cables "loose" in the first place?
See above.
1. Why stress test when there is traffic underneath?
Idiocracy.
The LiveLeak video does appear to show the reinforced concrete lower deck failing in tension, but that may not have been the triggering event. Between the low frame rate and only partial coverage of the construction zone it can't be determined from that alone. The failure site is suspicious, though; bending moments are highest at the center, not closer to the 1/4 point where the break appears to have occurred.
I'm betting that the vagineer didn't do a stress analysis for the incomplete bridge, only the ultimate state with all the support cables in place. This is going to smash the "more women in STEM!" crusade.
Pale Male wrote:This is going to smash the "more women in STEM!" crusade.
Heh, not a chance. Though you should be correct, that's not the world we're living in. They will be doubling down, not admitting they were wrong.
Well now, it looks like FIU is feverishly back-pedaling the "grrlpower!" theme of their article.
UPDATE, March 16, 2018, 11 a.m.: To clarify, Leonor Flores did not work on the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge project in any capacity.
Funny how they didn't feel the need to make that correction while she was getting all kinds of credit for something she didn't do.
WATYF
Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.
Fortunately, I don't see either Flores' or this company's credibility recovering from this debacle. They are screwed no matter what they do now.
Looks to have been a failure during post-tensioning of one of the upper diagonal truss members on the end that collapsed.
The tell-tale is the post-tensioning strand extending several feet out of it's conduit with the hydraulic tensioning unit still attached to the end.
If the strand or the anchorage thereof failed during tensioning, the structure would fail almost immediately in tension right at the midpoint of the member that the missing strand was loading.
What possessed them to undertake a high risk operation like post-tensioning while traffic was live under the bridge, only God knows for sure.
THAT is the decision that needs to be scrutinized most closely.
Structural failures during construction happen sometimes, especially when the design is new and edgy (IE poorly thought out and/or too close to the razor's edge), but nobody would have died here if they hadn't left the road open to traffic while they were doing this.
The project was dubbed "The Bridge to the Future."
How appropriate.
So looking at the latest I could find the span appears to be a post tensioned concrete which developed a crack during tensioning. Figg was responsible for the design-build and noticed a crack during the tensioning process and there lead engineer left a voicemail on an FDOT machine acknowledging that a crack had developed in the span but apparently did nothing to mitigate the risk. Smoking gun.
Tension stressed concrete can wickedly and catastrophically fail so I'm not sure why the Figg engineers thought a crack appearing during tensioning was no big deal. Incompetence.
I am surprised that FIU have not taken the article down. It is so embarrassing for them.
nobody would have died here if they hadn't left the road open to traffic while they were doing this.
Correct. Unfortunately, FIU ("International" being an odd way to spell "Cuban" but hey) has made a big commitment / investment in teaching ABC techniques. Keeping the road open during construction is the whole selling point of ABC, so closing the road to do the work... well, closing the road is 100% guaranteed to make someone unhappy. Not closing it? Maybe we'll get lucky.
Also, looks like they didn't follow the design for moving it into position. They shifted the transporters to different support locations on the span and left off spreader plates. In particular, according to AvE's YT, the end of the span that collapsed may have been left unsupported right under the PT strand that failed while they moved it.
One of the post-tensioning rods failed. AveE has an excellent video about this.
So, they were stress-testing. And the bridge failed its stress test. That's cool - after all, that why tests are done. Why exactly it failed is not really the issue (chinese steel, bad design, misplacement of the installation supports, whatever).
The reason people died is that the area was not barricaded off.
The root of the failure here is the concept of an "instant bridge", the idea that something like this can be installed and good-to-go in a couple of days with minimal disruption to the area.
Well guess what? That works perfectly fine … until it doesn't.
The very portability of that span means that it could have been tested at the manufacturing site. Stress-testing it over a live roadway was the height of irresponsibility.
People need to be charged with reckless homicide over this, and I don't mean next year. I mean this coming week. Also, the company proper should be criminally charged and disincorporated.
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