- Joined
- 1 Dec 2010
- Posts
- 53,767
- Location
- Welling, London
The likes of the Camorra and Ndrangheta operate quite far north at times.
Genoa bridge collapse
- Thread starter robfosters
- Start date
I hope he’s prepared for a bi*ch of a detour, and a ****load of traffic on it, for probably years to come, and forgive me if I think of all the stories of cowboy builders using thinner, inferior concrete to save ££, and colour me sceptical, I’m no meteorologist, but I find it hard to believe that a lightning strike caused this.
It's a bridge from the 60's of a rather unusual design. It's also had extensive repair work undertaken over the years because of its relatively thin section size.
Interior concrete / mob construction talk is crazy, it's 50 years old it's much more likely to be rebar corrosion that has been missed on inspection.
Interior concrete / mob construction talk is crazy, it's 50 years old it's much more likely to be rebar corrosion that has been missed on inspection.
From wiki
A sound structure with a correctly functioning lightening conductor should not suffer any ill effects.
However, as, I said earlier. I can certainly see how the combination of a faulty lightening conductor and mouldy/porous concrete that water has soaked into might produces a dramatic effect if struck by lightening.
Yeah I believe there have been issues raised in the past about the safety of the bridge. The mob stuff is just silliness.
Permabanned
- Joined
- 28 Nov 2003
- Posts
- 10,697
- Location
- Shropshire
Could it have been caused by migrants not breaking their stride across it? 
A lightning strike should be very visible even amongst the rubble, that sounds about as plausible as my migrant suggestion though.
It was interesting to me to be referred to Wikipedia by an earlier poster and to see 4000 people lost their lives on one bridge collapse (Ponte das Barcas in Portugal) in the eighteen hundreds.
A lightning strike should be very visible even amongst the rubble, that sounds about as plausible as my migrant suggestion though.
It was interesting to me to be referred to Wikipedia by an earlier poster and to see 4000 people lost their lives on one bridge collapse (Ponte das Barcas in Portugal) in the eighteen hundreds.
It will be interesting to discover the scope of the shoring works to the pier foundation. This was at the tower that collapsed and it was on or adjacent to the river bank as far as I can ascertain.
Differential displacements or movement ie settlements could have produced massive forces in the members up to or above ultimate design loadings. Having said that, the bridge design codes from the 1950's / 60's when this bridge was conceived were probably not limit state design.
Anyway it is much to be regretted. I am very surprised however that there was not more traffic management in evidence if work was being carried out under the bridge.
Differential displacements or movement ie settlements could have produced massive forces in the members up to or above ultimate design loadings. Having said that, the bridge design codes from the 1950's / 60's when this bridge was conceived were probably not limit state design.
Anyway it is much to be regretted. I am very surprised however that there was not more traffic management in evidence if work was being carried out under the bridge.
Associate
- Joined
- 28 Feb 2014
- Posts
- 517
- Location
- High Peak
Yeah, he said it's not going to be pretty!
According to his wife (who is still over there) the locals are saying the drains where never properly cleaned on it so a lot of water had nowhere to go. Whether that has anything to do with it - who knows. Certainly won't have helped.
Permabanned
- Joined
- 13 Apr 2017
- Posts
- 969
- Location
- scotland
Yep, rusting the steel reinforcing rods within the concrete beams, that's not good.
So previously they were critical of EU spending rules preventing them from fixing infrastructure (the sort of objection to the EU that the likes of Corbyn might have), but now it turns out they were actually critical of wanting to spend money fixing infrastructure....
For anyone interested, AvE has posted a video speculating as to why it collapsed.
If you like any form of engineering/electronics/machining you should follow AvE, his videos are (usually) full of humour and he's very well respected. This one's a bit more serious though obviously.
If you like any form of engineering/electronics/machining you should follow AvE, his videos are (usually) full of humour and he's very well respected. This one's a bit more serious though obviously.
I don't see the issue, sure they can't devalue their currency (not that it appears to help Turkey much, har har), and the fact was that Italy needed the EURO to stop it's slide into irrelevance that it was experiencing. Regardless, the EURO has issues.
But Italy has more issues than just leaving the Eurozone would solve, primarily their corrupt as all heck society. Pretty sure i've read numerous articles now that the Mob have more power than the Italian government lets on, when of course said government even exists for more than a few months.
They don't want to leave the eurozone (well they were going to have a eurosceptic finance minister who the President vetoed) - but they do (supposedly) want to spend more on infrastructure and indeed claimed that in the aftermath of this disaster.
Yet their funding capacity is at 1.9% or so of the 3% measure...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...t-but-will-keep-budget-in-check-idUSKBN1JT16S
I'm not entirely sure how Italy would have been minus the EU, but they've always been a mess, especially in the 1800s, when they were mostly agrarian in comparison to the powerhouses in the north of Europe. It's clear they haven't adjusted well over time, much like most of Southern Europe to pressures of said powerhouse on them. Their solution seemed to be utterly ineffectual governance, corruption all the way through, allowing criminals control of the south, allowing them to seemingly continue to operate their nefarious "protection" racket, having a populace that seemed fine with bending the rules whenever they could (probably in response to the aforementioned corruption and ineffectual government...cycle on and on...).
It's entirely Italy's fault it grow a debt so high, they should reap what they sew at the very least, and frankly the EU is saving them from the turmoil in one instance, though i imagine creating one in another (populism based on ignoring you're the problem)...
Last edited:
Rabid populists in 'No actual clue about governance' shocker.