It’s easy to criticise after such an accident, but should this still happen so often in the year 2012? I accept that its never entirely possible to account for all human failings, stupidity or inattention concerning large moving vessels e.g. witness the recent “Costa Concordia” founding as an extreme example: http://nicholsoncartoons.com.au/democracies-captain-schettino-syndrome-costa-concordia.html
However there are a number of different methods and electronic devices (infra red cameras or laser beams, radar etc.) that could be installed on bridge navigation spans and even on such a large vessel to detect an “oversize situation” whatever the tidal water level and to set off an alarm in time to possibly stop the moving object?
Just last week I saw the results of a similar although relatively minor event in Hong Kong. The Peak Tram bridge spanning over Kennedy road was hit by the excavating arm of a self-loading truck which had not been correctly lowered for transport. The whole truck was reared up on its back wheels with its front and the articulated arm hanging off the rather flimsy truss bottom chord. Fortunately and surprisingly the structural damage was minor. The Peak Tram is in fact a cable-drawn funicular railway and a heritage item built about 120 years ago. It is also the major tourist attraction in Hong Kong which is always full to maximum capacity. If the bridge had collapsed it could have been a potential disaster.
TBG,
I guess you also read our community’s comments on this collision including “Always civil”, and “Bridgehunter who posted a pertinent concluding remark. i.e.: http://bridgehunter.com/story/1170/ (entitled “The mess at Eggners Ferry Bridge”)
Other photos that I saw in the press are amazing. The whole bridge truss structure was bent like a paper doily around the bow of the vessel. e.g.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/kentucky-bridge-destroyed-by-ship-1327687672-slideshow/cargo-ship-pauses-water-colliding-eggner-ferry-bridge-photo-170413525.html
It’s easy to criticise after such an accident, but should this still happen so often in the year 2012? I accept that its never entirely possible to account for all human failings, stupidity or inattention concerning large moving vessels e.g. witness the recent “Costa Concordia” founding as an extreme example:
http://nicholsoncartoons.com.au/democracies-captain-schettino-syndrome-costa-concordia.html
However there are a number of different methods and electronic devices (infra red cameras or laser beams, radar etc.) that could be installed on bridge navigation spans and even on such a large vessel to detect an “oversize situation” whatever the tidal water level and to set off an alarm in time to possibly stop the moving object?
Just last week I saw the results of a similar although relatively minor event in Hong Kong. The Peak Tram bridge spanning over Kennedy road was hit by the excavating arm of a self-loading truck which had not been correctly lowered for transport. The whole truck was reared up on its back wheels with its front and the articulated arm hanging off the rather flimsy truss bottom chord. Fortunately and surprisingly the structural damage was minor. The Peak Tram is in fact a cable-drawn funicular railway and a heritage item built about 120 years ago. It is also the major tourist attraction in Hong Kong which is always full to maximum capacity. If the bridge had collapsed it could have been a potential disaster.
TBG,
I guess you also read our community’s comments on this collision including “Always civil”, and “Bridgehunter who posted a pertinent concluding remark. i.e.: http://bridgehunter.com/story/1170/ (entitled “The mess at Eggners Ferry Bridge”)