Bridge collapse

[Adrian R2Participant @adrianr2]

£1.5 million, not £15 million. Still a lot of beans to you and me.

That AI summary contains no useful info with regard to failure mode so I’m sticking with my diagnosis of a bound up top pivot. The design relied on the mass of the bridge being correctly distributed to keep the teeth engaged so a bit of unexpected rotational torque would upset that.

I am not a civil or structural engineer.

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

I think the Prior Context line nicely supports your thinking, Adrian

MichaelG,

[Adrian R2Participant @adrianr2]

A second possibility, the hydraulics dropped faster than expected and then stopped suddenly either by themselves or on command, inertia of the descending span took over and again altered effective mass distribution and lifted the teeth of the rack.

Enough unqualified speculation, I shall await the official report.

[Author]

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