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Local outfit ?
- Thread starter Multiracer
- Start date
From the looks of the excavator this was Kokosing Construction. They are from Fredricktown Ohio and are the largest road and bridge contractor in the state. This is too bad..... they are a good outfit.
old-iron-habit
Senior Member
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- Moose Lake, MN
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Boy, I hate to see this. Some family always left wanting. Will have to wait and see how it shakes out as details develop.
CM1995
Administrator
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RIP. That truck driver was damn lucky, which brings a question to a novice demo guy. Why were they demo'ing that bridge with traffic still running underneath it?
What DOT engineer or official signed off on that procedure? I read in other threads all the safety paperwork that must be filled out for even the simplest tasks but somehow this was determined to be a good idea? Are we not seeing the forest from the trees when it comes to safety?:beatsme
Just my thoughts, we'll know more as the investigation continues.
What DOT engineer or official signed off on that procedure? I read in other threads all the safety paperwork that must be filled out for even the simplest tasks but somehow this was determined to be a good idea? Are we not seeing the forest from the trees when it comes to safety?:beatsme
Just my thoughts, we'll know more as the investigation continues.
ericscher
Well-Known Member
Maybe they were doing open road prep to keep the closed time to a minimum and the reporter stated it a little differently?
I don't know... Just speculating.
Multiracer
Senior Member
It may be possible the structure was way worse off than anyone anticipated or discovered ?
That was my guess. These guys are pros at taking out bridges and i cant imagine they were doing anything that wasnt in compliance with the law.
Its a real eye opener though..... its easy to get complacent when you havent had an accident in a while. Got me thinking thats for sure.
digger242j
Administrator
If you look at the excavator, it has a shear on it, and it's generally facing the area beyond the shoulder of the Interstate. There's nothing of the bridge remaining in that area. From that, I'd guess he was handling the steel that's laying against the excavator's cab and somehow dislodged the portion of the deck he was sitting on, or maybe all those beams stacked right there at that end, plus the machine itself, was too much weight?
Multiracer
Senior Member
Nige
Senior Member
I agree with Digger. It looks to me as though the shear was on top of the span, the operator must have got one hell of a fright when all of a sudden his a$$ went from underneath him. The weird thing is if you assume that the span was longer than the distance between the supporting columns, how did it manage to fall flat down without taking at least one column out..? As I see it they are both still standing.
The Peej
Senior Member
I have no experience doing bridge construction or demo but it seems odd to me that they completely removed the one section. I would have thought that they'd have removed all the deck then gone back for the steel.
mitch504
Senior Member
Heavey Metal
Well-Known Member
Failure occurred at the 2 bolted joints.
In my opinion the removal of the first span minus 2 beams could not counterweight the excavator on the center span.
The 2 remaining beams than levered up into the air hinged on the bolt joint and the support column and landed on the operator.
In my opinion the removal of the first span minus 2 beams could not counterweight the excavator on the center span.
The 2 remaining beams than levered up into the air hinged on the bolt joint and the support column and landed on the operator.
buckfever
Senior Member
Maybe someone who does this kind of work could correct me but doesn't demo jobs like this have a engineer that figures out how to take a bridge down? I would think thier would be a lot of consideration to take into account when taking down a structure this big while traffic is still passing underneath. Not something you just pull up to and start hacking away at.
Hell I've done commercial demos of a three story structure that required a PE stamp on how we where going to take it down.
Hell I've done commercial demos of a three story structure that required a PE stamp on how we where going to take it down.
has anyone saw the traffic cam video clip of it falling?? I saw it on a news cast the night after, I shows the end the excavator on falls first then the other end falls, its very grainy cause the lights on the cars but it shows everything as it happened. I cant find a link to it anywhere now tho!!