Simple solution: in Germany the inspectors simply have the authoriy to close the bridge (or any piece of infrastructure) if they find any critical stuff.

Galvanising would have protected it better methinks.

well to your point at 17:37, I'd argue that that whole ordeal is to prevent a post like that from existing, you can't take a picture of a completly rusted off steel member if it gets fixed when damaged and a steel beam with rust on it at that kind of bridge will not get any attention, so the "common sense" point feels weak, if we have to use common sense, call me uninformed, but I think then it is way past the point where action should have been taken.

Compounding inspection recommendation priority. With automatic preventative action if it reaches a certain priority.

Strong Towns talks about this stuff a lot. Having a “maintenance mindset” where maybe you build less but maintain it well and plan for maintenance funding from the beginning. Seems like a good solution.

It blows my mind that we can deploy an entire military to build up other countries in the name of democracy, but watch as our infrastructure rots.

@@publicuser2534 google "military industrial complex".

@@publicuser2534 Agreed, but not in the name of democracy. In the name of money, oil, food, yes, but not democracy, or some of the countries we deploy to would actually be democratic and they absolutely aren't. :|

sad but true

​@@publicuser2534 Militaries aren't great at building stuff that isn't physical. All they can do on a social front is enact a "temporary solution" to government...

How unfortunate. Complex systems cannot survive the competency crisis.

The security reasons of course being the reputations of those who should be overseeing maintenance of public infrastructure who are not doing that and would like to keep not doing it while collecting paychecks.

of course they're classified !! foreign adversary countries can use bridge reports to systematically instill lack of faith in the governmental systems by... rightly pointing out that those governments are failing to maintain their infrastructure to the point where lives are at risk this is a joke just in case that isn't clear enough

I read that as "don't walk to talk about it" for "obvious reasons"

People would probably refuse to cross any bridges because they fear for theyr lives, shutting down the supply lines and general economy. So the security concerns are not that far fetched, as this would probably result in riots and plundering for food or mass migration to safer places pretty quickly. And who ever is and was actually in charge of fixing that infrastructure or cutting the budget probably has to fear for his reputation or even his life as well. I sometimes think spending less money on bureaucatic administration systems and rerouting that money and time to actually do something productive would fix a lot of issues.

Y....you have to have your car INSPECTED??? What hellish state/country/province do you live in??

@bugsabc956 what a hellish state does NOT demand vehicle inspections and instead lets idiots drive two ton deathtraps around that might just be one bump in the road away from a complete brake failure, steering failure, wheels coming off or other parts flying away at speed, turning them into uncuntrollable cruise missiles? 🤨

@LRM12o8 Minnesota babyyyyy. It might be a state bought and sold by the DFL (Democratic Farmers League) but if those farmers and I agree on one thing it's freedom. "Freedom" and "safety" are directly competing values. I personally prefer the former. Between a state full of jerry-rigged (we have a different term for it but I don't think KZfaq would like me dropping gamer words in the comments) barely functional jalopies barreling down the freeway and having to have the car I OWN inspected by some 75 IQ state pencil pusher just to be able to drive down the road, I'll take the shitbox-laden highway option 100% of the time. We also just passed a state law allowing anyone over the age of 18 to utilize their 2nd Amendment right to conceal carry without having to apply for a state license 😊. In the words of one of our greatest founding fathers: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -Benjamin Franklin

@@bugsabc956You never had a car inspection? It’s required by law in the U.S

​@fezawn1 I think it's a southern thing, there's a few counties in PA that don't require inspections, jackson county Georgia doesn't either, and hasn't since at least 2011 when we moved down here, but think of emissions, the US military can half a new f450 without DEF but if I have one, I'm fined and required to put all that stuff back on it, emissions is just so you spend more money

And they didn't fix it until John Oliver turned it into a national embarrassment.

Parkway east!

i commuted under that bridge!

Hell the bridge under the bridge was considered an improvement to the situation. Before that they just had netting wrapped around it.

​@@teslalvr lol I remember the net days.

That needs to change. We need people who know their stuff and are smart to be in charge and have the ability to act. 👍

One of my sayings was "If you really want to know what really happens talk to the guy with the greasiest hands"

I dont know if you've heard of the water main that failed in Calgary Alberta? I looked. 1 person in city council is an engineer. Basically everyone else had "community organizer" in their bio. The water main was known to have issues for a while. They spent $4 million on a new city slogan though.

@@pin65371 Toronto has the same sort of problem. Millions on renaming an intersection and years of yammering instead of doing something about the (insert real problem of choice) issue.

​@rm3141593 that's not what that phrase means. Even if you only hired expert engineers, the guy with final say at some point will be someone who probably has never even seen the bridges file.

Have you been to San Francisco? Lots of good bridges for you over there.

New York has even more.

Please don't move to Seattle! :)

Where were you on the night of the Francis Scott key bridge collapse ?

He knows where you sleep.

True! Not even just the burg, I live a few counties to the north and most of the roads, even pa state roads/bridges are below subpar. Even in my town there's huge, gaping holes between tracks and the road... massive potholes, but the states planned to put in a roundabout at an intersection where a college is. Blows my mind to think we all just got hammered by that X trillion dollar "infrastructure " bill that was past. Our gov. Has failed us and there's no one they answer to when they fail

Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties all have SHITE bridges that are berry dangerous. That being said, WHAT'S UP YINZERS?!

I just wish they'd find a solution to their hellacious tunnels.

I agree with your remark. Grady is awesome.

we need to give inspectors the authority to close infrastructure entirely on their own.

Part of the problem, I think is that people figure that common sense will prevail. After all, what kind of moron would look at a report that says there's holes rusted through the legs of a bridge, and *NOT* close the bridge? (Hint: the kind of moron who only sees the bridge as a line item on the budget.)

Build Back Better!!!

What about the inspector that missed the crack on the ohio brige i believe?

This by design from republicans. They de-fund government then point to how terrible government is when it can't run correctly.

There needs to be enough incentive for people in those positions to not even think twice about the idea of keeping an unsafe piece of infrastructure open, even if closing it will face strong backlash from the public.

A lot of people think capitalism is the only cause of such issues, but this clearly demonstrates that it's a human problem. There are always budgets. There's always a risk/reward calculation. There is always a profit motive. In this case, it's more political profit than economic. If an engineer shuts down a bridge and it causes a politician to take heat, that engineer will face backlash.

@@UserNameAnonymous Engineers can handle it, mostly because their jobs aren't tied to popularity.

There are a bunch of cognitive biases that can lead to people dismissing obvious warning signs. People don't want to come to unpopular conclusions, people don't want to believe a catastrophe could happen to them or near them, people convince themselves that something is safe because nothing went wrong previously, and so on and so forth. The human brain is pretty bad at dealing with high consequence, low probability events. It takes training and practice.

@@UserNameAnonymous Capitalism is when a state entity fails to do his job, lol

I’m on the other side of the equation with designing equipment for hospitals not much glory in making buttons that minimise mistakes or evacuation equipment that can help workers from getting injured compared to the more expensive flashier products or “life altering” ones when reducing errors and injuries is just as important

Well, I for one salute you, dear Internet stranger that does this awesome work 💪👍

It's a real and chronic issue with investigative bodies. Often they can only get away with thorough, high quality investigations precisely because they can't do anything about the problem except make recommendations. When investigative bodies are empowered to mandate changes, suddenly their funding disappears, or they start being bound up in red tape.

The best inspections are performed by people who do have no dog in the fight. If the inspection is performed by the same person doing the fixing there's a strong incentive to downplay issues. Perhaps the solution is to mandate a followup onsite walkthrough by someone who does have approval authority in any case of a critical deficiency. As he said, a line item of 'this thing is broke' and a couple of pictures can't get the message across the same as having to look at it with your own eyes.

It's odd, since they do sometime make systemic recommendations, although they, again, have no power to make the change.

This is what happens in a bureaucratic system where no one is held accountable for their actions or inactions.

@@cutterjohn1921 That is essentially the current system everyone involved operates at arms length. If anyone had ticked criticality 1 as a box then they would have been required to do stuff about it. More than a little of this is the swiss cheese model. There were multiple opportunities for this to get caught. But the real issue is every single entity here had no dog in the fight. Everyone did their job (you can't say don't make mistakes, people are people, the system is meant to catch that problem) but nobody really *cared* about the result to push when the system itself wasn't doing the job. You could reduce the paperwork 80% I think, save money and have safer bridges if you had basic standards, and criminal liability for maintenance and repair. You'd basically have bridge trolls lol. People who would "own" the bridge and be responsible for keeping it in tip top shape. Bridge falls down the board of directors goes to jail. Those drains would be gleaming. With no paperwork required to enforce it.

And, because everything is systems, to see the wider picture as to how these things are allowed to occur. Systemic failures in design, construction, management, budget, repair, inspection, maintenance. It's complex and complicated.

And at the same time it's very simple and obvious. Some one somewhere wanted to save a few bucks. ​@@Jablicek

Yeah… that’s what the engineers are doing… not skimping on materials because of their employers…

Joking!

This is part of our job, yes.

Is there really even an opportunity to vote on such things? This is an honest question. I agree with you about the main issue ultimately being the electorate, but it is my gut feeling that the way our government is set up, as top heavy as it is, there isn't much political incentive for legislators, especially those at the higher levels, to be responsive to the electorate, present opportunities for the electorate to mandate concrete action, or encourage an informed electorate.

Most of the time it’s the people in charge of bridges that fail to tell the public how bad the bridges,etc really are. How can we vote on something that’s not presented to us?

I find it funny a government employee gaslighting citizens,blaming them for the failures of the government

@@joegosselin2888 i don't see this poster as gaslighting us. At the end of the day, voters make or break politicians, even if it is through actions outside the ballot box. But I believe you are definitely correct in pointing out that we can't vote on something that isn't presented. I argue also that the public sometimes are the ones who point out failure, in addition to the subject matter experts. Our government system still disincentivizes (and now more than ever with the Chevron SC ruling) agencies with the know-how and mandate to do stuff from actually doing stuff.

@@andresmorera6426 The information is there. It's common knowledge that our infrastructure is falling apart, just as it's common knowledge that our education system is failing us. The fact is that when it comes to selecting politicians, the politicians who the public select give it lip service at best and then focus on other things. When public servants do try to get something done, some NIMBY with a lawyer or a political connection stands in the way. If you want to find out more about your local bridges, the information is published on a website that's called LTBP InfoBridge for every publicly owned bridge over 20 feet long in the entire nation.

Same here-InfoSec 20+ years of experience (CCSP, CISA, and CISSP, doing Audit, Networking, SIEM, and Web App Sec.) Having InfoSec CISOs under the thumb/authority of the CFO, NOT having a seat at the C-Level table, always having to beg for more money, is the foundation for failure. (Watch the excellent 45-minute naval engineering failure analysis “Failure is like onions” by YT Presenter *Drachinifel* about the Mark XIV torpedo during the first 2 years of WWII. EVERY InfoSec Analyst/Engineer should watch this to understand how politics and cost almost always overrides good SENSE, not to mention sound engineering and testing!) Amazon’s CISO sits at that table AND the Board as well. They *at least* get heard!

When I see problems. I don't report it. Why should I? This doesn't get resolved until enough people become no more alive due to the incompetence of the system.

Yeah, while the people with the clear view maybe shouldn't have full authority, they should at least have the authority to shut something down when they have good reason in order to make sure the people with authority are forced into figuring out what is going on.

Deviant Olam, a physical security specialist and pentester emphasizes that when you do a pentest, it’s not just about proving you can get in and out. It’s about getting people with authority to take action with you - to give them that clear picture of the various security flaws. To demonstrate why they need to make those action items a priority.

Maybe a dumb question but what is a pentester?

Maybe that's part of the problem here. They receive constant warning for things that hold on for years, so they are thinking "it's okay it will last some time again and we'll figure out something later" - until there is no later. Inspectors should have the ability to close structures that are dangerous.

There can come a point in your career where you need to say "screw it" and take it above the heads of the people making a really poor decision, no matter the risk to your own job. I've done it once, but thankfully it was only two management tiers above my own boss, not public. Anyone who blows the whistle for genuine public interest and makes it to the media has nothing but my utmost respect. Whistleblowers do not fare well when something hits the media, even today. I suspect they fare worse when it doesn't become public.

At that point all you really can do is laugh.

"... welp."

Then you get thousands of keyboard warriors talking about how the inspector must have been taking bribes

Yep. Having KZfaq-generated captions is worse than useless.

As a hearing impaired individual I could not agree more.

@@craigpridemore7566 They've improved a lot over the years

ikr! I notice all the time. I don't have problems *hearing* but unfortunately i have auditory processing issues, and really relieves a lot of mental energy to understand and appreciate what's going on and being said!

💯 especially with names or technical terms, autocaptioning is garbage and I'm always so appreciative of the youtubers who take the time to make it right ❤

No! The ribbon is structural!

​@@JonBrase well done, comment of the century 😂

Gonna tell the boss he needs to up the ribbon budget by about 10,000% for me to get through July.

@@jabumbo 10000 x 0 is still 0

This bridge gets a D- *Cuts celebration ribbon*

Amazing how fast stuff can get done when there's a major embarrassment Bootygig was probably busy with Other things

@@UncleWermus You have 0 idea the time it takes for actual progress to be made in the government. It's not as simple as sayinh "Do this, now."

or somebody knocked it over to sell a spending package

I do some stuff with construction on infastructure. The sad thing is, if you want to upgrade an existing structure, the government will bog you down. Planning ahead costs twice as much because government will require environmental reviews, tons of engineering, studies, public review periods, and if any group decides to fight against the project (there is always someone) the price skyrockets. You throw tons of money at lawyers and engineers. However, if your infastructure fails, the government will just sign off on you fixing it/upgrading it. It costs half as much because you skip all the burocracy. As most of the projects I'm involved with are not safety related, we often buy all the parts for an upgrade then let them sit in our yard till we have a small failure so we can get emergency approval to upgrade. Saves us a ton of money. It is very sad the way the government effectively outlaws preventative upgrades.

FJB

And yet the advertisement is for a razor. Well, I guess the old neck beard always needs a gentlemanly trim!

@@virginiacharlotte7007 Beards take a lot of grooming to keep looking clean and professional. I use more grooming tools now than I did when I was a bald face

Practical Engi-Bearding!

Yeah the beard and the top 2 buttons undone gives a more playful and jovial vibe than usual from Grady. I like it!

Only for the advert 😫

scariest day of their life I'm sure.

Yeah, that driver needs to get some recognition, and paid a lot more than they are. To manage their panic response enough to stop while keeping the (articulating!) bus under control on a collapsing structure is a superhuman achievement.

@@leakingamps2050 Not every hero, wears a cape.

I'd rather have my name lost than in an inquiry report! It's a shame the bronze plaque is so tempting.

@@mouseluva But if the inquiry report brings no repremandation, does it even matter?

We as a society can change that!

Until people stop saying "politicians" and start using actual names of the people responsible, nothing will change.

what budgets? lol. new construction is prioritized because new construction gets federal funds. maintenance gets whatever change is left in the couch cushions after the meetings about how to shake down the DOT for new construction cash.

I have been thinking for some time that large projects that forseeably need non-trivial maintenance budgets should be required to have an "endowment" of money that is invested in an annuity-like way to fund at least the forseeable maintenance requirements. And if the endowment runs out, it is federally required to be topped up or the project closed.

Maintenance is not electorally efficient!

And its amazing that just cleaning the drains and clearing debris would have extended the life of the bridge a huge amount.

Yeah, I've seen (and am seeing) similar issues. The community as a whole (i.e. the voting population) cares far more intensely about matters like construction work making commutes longer and taxes being raised to pay for infrastructure projects than about making sure critical infrastructure is repaired before it fails. And as a result the local politicians do everything in their power to avoid doing anything, because no matter what they do it will be unpopular with a lot of people.

“new infrastructure project” pays for cronies “maintenance” is just a drain on resources, despite being more important

My wife was en route to cross it, but she had to turn around because she forgot something. Had she not turned around, she likely would have been on or very near the bridge when it collapsed. I also have a co-worker who drove over the bridge about 10 minutes before it collapsed.

and of COURSE, no one went to jail...

@@roberthousedorfii1743 The greater the impact, the lower the consequences for those responsible. Especially in government.

@@thecatofnineswords Now what is the point of posting such a uselessly cynical comment? Government is the responsibility of the PEOPLE. We pay for it with our taxes, we vote for representatives, we have free speech and the right to raise cane when crucial infrastructure is ignored, we all know that graft, corruption or incompetence can occur in any human endeavor... We're not a nation of 7 year olds waiting for Mom and Dad to take care of everything.

@@mjinba07 because that is my experience/observation of those who have experienced repercusions for illegal or bad behavious. Individuals will be jailed/fined for breaking the law, but corporate executives and government leaders just move onto their next role, no matter how many people their actions killed. We bear the cost through increased taxes, but where is the actual increased funding in maintenance? I too expect the government to do good work for the benefit of society, but there are very few actual methods available to hold it accountable when it goes awry.

Normalisation of deviance is the name of the day.

Right. "The engineer complained about this issue last year, and it still hasn't caused any problems."

@@electrowizard2000 Normally these quotes would be slightly exaggerated to emphasize the issue, but that just seems like something someone would actually say.

Maybe bad/damaged/improper/.. drainage simply show You the best way that project/building/ had done wrong way or have serious problems in common.For example: wrong project gives extra deformation or vibration and drainage reacts it first (You see it's proiblems first, before problems of main construction. because it seems early and better).

Makes sense. Assuming that the value of drainage maintenance would be self-evident is a very engineer sort of mistake to make. Over time a pattern of bridge deterioration/failures due to lack of drainage maintenance would make it obvious that bridges shouldn't be designed assuming regular, diligent drainage maintenance.

@@SnakebitSTI Then the problems will just shift over to whatever design compromises were made to facilitate better drainage, the bottom line is that if maintenance is ignored failures will occur.

@@SnakebitSTI I'm not sure they should be designed expecting maintenance, period.

@@gas33z Yes, it will just shift the problems to things with longer mean time between failure. That doesn't mean it's not worth doing. A maintenance-less bridge would likely be wildly more expensive and thus very unlikely to be chosen, if one is even possible. But that doesn't mean some designs don't require more active maintenance than others.

Thanks for keeping State Bridges safe

I'm very happy I live in NY where I can break into an empty apartment and squat for free, take whatever I want from retail stores as long as it's worth less than $1000, and get immediately released every time I get caught shoplifting. Thank you for making this comment!

@@B3Band You should move to TX, you can shoplift up to $2500!

If inspectors had a federal power to limit the traffic using a bridge -- even to the point of none at all -- would that help, or would officials just take excuses through the courts or close the bridges without alternatives?

⁠@@rivimeythey closed another Pittsburgh bridge about three miles from this bridge about a year after the Fern Hollow bridge collapsed. It was a bridge that carried major traffic. It was closed with no warning to the public (that was fun), and we were told that it was going to be repaired. Almost a year and a half later, nothing had been done. They “might” get it repaired and opened sometime next year. Welcome to Pittsburgh!

Thanks for that, it's good to hear from someone who actually knows the field. I was just thinking about the twitter post and photo that got mentioned in the report. Do you think that a loose network of concerned citizens, dog walkers, hikers, retired busybodies and just random dudes and Karens could help you, now that everyone has a smart phone? No doubt there would have to be a few simple rules they would all have to follow but you would get a large photo archive of the bridges and infrastructure over time and in different conditions. That could be useful.

@rivimey the politics of it all can be really complicated, but it's not exactly an Us vs. Them relationship with inspectors and owners. Inspectors can and (on rare occasions) do call in to the owner while on-site when the condition is severe enough for emergency intervention. The issue comes with finding that threshold where you decide that something must be done immediately. There are no shortage of bridges in this country that have very severe deterioration, yet they remain standing for years or decades. There's a lot of reserve capacity and redundancy in most bridges, so loss of material doesn't necessarily mean the bridge is in danger of collapse (often it isn't). It can be difficult to determine this in the field though, because you need to do a rigorous analysis to even know the capacity. It's not possible to do that on site. Generally, there are telltale signs of imminent danger that we would see that would cause us to call it in. Things like a significant sag in the bridge deck, a fracture in a steel member, severe scour of a bridge foundation due to water, etc. Certain types of bridges are more critical than others due to the nature of how they distribute stress. For example, trusses are typically non-redundant, so if 1 member fails then the entire bridge or a section of the bridge may collapse. So seeing a fracture in a steel member of a truss is a very big deal and we would call that in and probably try to stop traffic ourselves if possible. But seeing a crack in a steel beam on a 6-beam bridge is less critical, because if that beam fails the load can distribute to the adjacent beams and imminent collapse is unlikely. Load redistribution isn't possible with a truss. Ultimately the owner still gets the final say in whether or not to close the bridge, but generally speaking they will take the advice of the inspector. The implications for closing a small bridge on a back road are minimal, so it's not usually a big deal to close one. But closing a mainline bridge on an interstate and/or a bridge on the Federal emergency route has massive implications for the surrounding community, commerce, emergency services, safety of local residents, etc. It's no small deal to close a bridge on I-95 like the one that collapsed here in Philly after the tanker fire or the FSK bridge in Baltimore that was struck by the ship. I'm not implying that those bridges should have been closed due to their condition by the way; I'm just using them as examples since they're well known to everyone in the country and they're on major interstates. For an inspector to call in the closure of an interstate bridge, he needs to be right about it needing to be closed asap. The owner would be pissed if we called in something that wasn't that emergent, wasting tons of time and money by doing so. That's why it's so tricky to do these things. You are basically putting your entire career on the line for something that you usually cannot be 100% sure about. It's almost never black and white.

@jakedee4117 no offense to those trying to help, but the vast majority of people lack the requisite knowledge to understand the condition or potential threat to safety. The general public tends to put too much emphasis on the appearance of a bridge without understanding the mechanics. I've seen and heard many non-engineers complain about an 'old rusted bridge' which really says nothing about condition or load carrying capacity. Rust is normal on steel. Cracks are normal in concrete. You can have either without it affecting the bridge capacity at all. I've inspected countless bridges that had failed paint and rust throughout, but they didn't have any measurable loss of steel. When steel oxidizes, the resulting material (rust) is 16 times thicker than the original steel. So if you had a 1/16" steel plate that fully rusted through, you'd end up with 1" thick rust. Extrapolate this to a typical beam/girder flange that is 1", 2", or 3+" thick, and that's a LOT of rust. Point is: it often looks worse than it is to the untrained eye. We make the remaining steel section with calipers and use that data to do a load rating analysis of the bridge. It's not even possible for us as engineers to gauge these things on site. We need to run an analysis on the computer. So it's virtually impossible for the general public to have any idea about the condition of a bridge. The times when the public can help is more with the big red flag items that any person would know is a problem. Certainly the Twitter photo in this case would be a good thing to report, though 100% section loss on a bracing member is still not that unusual. I-495 around Wilmington was closed after a motorist reported a sag in the bridge barrier. That sag ended up being due to the pier tilting as a result of a stockpile of construction material too close to the bridge. That was a rare case when a not-so-obvious sign of distress ended up being a massive issue, and somehow a traveling motorist caught it. If I were to provide guidance to anyone wanting to report emergent issues with a bridge, I would say to ask themselves 'does this look right?' As in, is something bending in a way it doesn't look to be designed for? Is something leaning that probably shouldn't be leaning? Is a piece of steel cracked or fractured? Is a large portion or all of the foundation exposed? If you see something that really looks off, report it. But I would say to refrain from reporting rusted steel or cracked concrete, because 99.9% of the time it's not a serious defect requiring immediate intervention. And over-reporting non- critical issues will only take away from our time and resources. The majority of the time, we already know about the issue being reported by a concerned citizen, and it's been evaluated at least once. Many times, it's a very insignificant defect that sometimes has been around for decades, but it simply looks bad to the public so it keeps getting reported. We have to inspect all bridges in the country on at least a 2yr cycle, so there's rarely a situation where a defect goes unnoticed by inspectors for years.

With how much of the country is running on shoestring budgets these days I'm very afraid that you're correct.

Humans are cheap and easy to replace.

I have lived in Pittsburgh all of my 52 years. I believe I have only been on that bridge a handful of times mostly because I have lived in brookline and now for the last 20 years Robinson Township. I do work at the University for the last 27 years but never need to go that far east from Oakland.

The bus-muda triangle

i saw the bus in the thumbnail too. And i also knew exactly what it was instantly. It's a bus.

They are heavy and drive strange routes.

@@drescherjm : I crossed that bridge frequently and hated it due to the fast traffic, narrow roadway, and grates that seemed set up to catch my bike tires, but I never feared it would collapse. Not like the Homestead bridge that you could see through, or the Greenfield bridge with the extra bridge underneath to catch the bits falling down.

things werent really amazing back when PA had the money either. rose tinted glasses wont show you the real picture. it was great for the rich who benefited from coal and steel production, but it was at severe cost to the lower middle class, and to the environment. and im not just talking about climate change, all of these processes dump more than just greenhouse gasses, they also poison the air, leech chemicals into the groundwater, and the efforts taken to prevent major ecological damage were practically nonexistent. i feel for those living in the results of these decisions now, but it is important to recognize that the way things were could never have been maintained, it was chosen from the start to put profits now ahead of pain and suffering later.

yes we need to fund them so they can take swift strong proletarian action

Well we had Pittsburgh bridges featured in 2 videos in a month, this one was inevitable.

@@nitehawk86 Bridges are what the state, and especially Pitt, are known for eh? On full display of how well they're taken care of.

Pennsylvania, always number two.

One of the things that makes me sick about this country is the use of positive anymore. Just kidding.

Same here in the U.K. Nobody gets sacked or imprisoned for dereliction or neglect, especially in the public sector

So...like Boeing?

@@JoshuaTootell exactly. If CEOs started losing all their assets and spending time in real prisons not country clubs then maybe things would change

They should have torn it down and replaced it sadly politics gets in the way.

If only government spent our money on stuff that mattered like infrastructure.

​@mae2759 can't be raising taxes in an election year... or ever really. Money for infrastructure maintenance is long overdue. It will be pennies in comparison when the next bridge falls or dam breaks.

@@Cassinspace We don't need to raise taxes. We need to divert funds to things we need, like infrastructure. But, you can't buy votes and political favors by cutting programs.

😮 wow

See bridge conditions here: gis.penndot.gov/paprojects/BridgeConditions.aspx

Unfortunately, the city's response is usually to just close the road (and put a diaper under it). I really miss driving over the Panther Hollow Bridge. At least the inspection of all the rest of the bridges resulted in closure before injury.

The poor state of the bridges isn't exactly an unknown problem in Pittsburgh, even before the bridge collapse. It's kind of hard to miss the crumbling concrete and the bridge "diapers" meant to "solve" the problem of falling concrete.

​@@SnakebitSTI Too true, unfortunately

It seems to be a human brain thing. On some level, we expect to spend money for new things, but we expect the things we have to just continue working.

@@SnakebitSTI It's a cultural problem. Are you telling me that a mayor who finds the time to personally hype up the outcome of an inspection/safety report WOULDN'T look like a boss? If they went out to the bridge and held a press conference discussing an A+ safety report and telling people how much they value their constituents' lives and their city's infrastructure, they would get good press. You could practically campaign on that alone. If a bridge gets a B-, they implement the necessary fixes and then personally show up and hold a press conference bragging about how awesome their repairs and improvements are. You can even have a baller ribbon cutting ceremony for it if you need to. The problem is purely cultural. Politicians do not realize the potential for personal gain by taking infrastructure seriously.

Some places have a maintenance program that consists of "Fix it when it fails". The factory I am working at right now is like that (I'm an HVACR tech). I had the same experience doing repair work at McDonald's and 99 Cent stores.

I would love to see this!

++1 for this! I was just scrolling through to see if anyone mentioned this, and was thinking to recommend it if not. The pipe in question carries about 60% of the city's water, though. I really would love to see a video on this. There have been documented problems with PCCP made in the 1970s, and this pipe is at the 50 year mark in it's supposed 100-yr life span. Please help us to understand better (or at all) how water infrastructure works :)

@@camrouxbg the plant produces %60, this is one of 2 pipes leaving the plant, one heading north and the south one that broke.

@@codybarker3863 Ah alright, that actually makes sense. Thanks for the correction.

Could the pipe have failed due to seismic activity?

TBH, even healthy bridges bounce. You just don't notice it while your car is moving. But pedestrians and people in idling cars notice.

ok, ok, but the weight limit is per vehicle or axle. There's no "math" to be done.

Timeframe sounds about right for Wellington Central Library. Though I’m sure there’s plenty of other examples around the country.

oof 💀

This reminds me of the Citigroup (formerly Citicorp) Center story, I think Grady has a video on it. I think what's cool about that story is how the chief structural engineer admitted his mistake and worked with the other stakeholders to remediate the problem. Nickolas Means has a talk about this aspect of the story.

@@thesquishedelf1301 ....Not the library :D ... That's still closed and they're just ignoring it, as far as I recall...

@@jimschofield8734 I mean, last I saw (July 2023) they were slowly dismantling it. A bunch of the decorative facade facing the police station had been removed since 2022. I knew it wasn't the tallest, but I reckon it had an argument as largest closed building besides Te Papa (which kinda counts as multiple buildings), that thing was huge. I miss the Central Library 😢

The deterioration was at locations that could hold rotting vegetation and road salt. I can clearly see how the central webbing was gone, not just the corroded braces. If you have ever seen the added roof section that diverts rain around a chimney, that is what was missing from these braces. But mostly, the cross brace was never highlighted as a critical tension member, and road salt was spilling over the curbs for decades.

What a haunting experience

I believe there are plans to replace the bridges in 2026-2028. hopefully they hold up long enough.

@@retro_88yota yep, they're in the final stage of planning. Pending land acquisition, they can break ground by the end of the year

Any other bridges up there I should be careful of?

If that's the same one I'm thinking of: I drive over that one probably once a month and that thing is shabby as all heck!

Need third party independent inspector. If inspectors work for the people doing the work, they have a vested interest to find things to fix or not fix. Fox guarding the henhouse.

​@@JKHTX Inspector are typically independent contractors, but they don't usually have authority to shut things down.

@RBzee112 this is an unfortunate example of where convenience and economics are more important than safety. Same decision going on all across the US.

The government is fine with shutting businesses down and forcing them to fix things (if they don't have connections, at least), but it doesn't want its own things shut down. Following its own standards is too much to ask of government.

@@Br3ttM rules for thee, not for me

Wise advice.

In other words all bridge inspection reports should be sent to the local newspaper, radio station, police, ambulance, fire, etc. Not a bad suggestion.

@@Mark_Bridges If everything is within standards, I don't see a need to do so, only those bridges that need to have weight loads lowered, or the bridge closed. I could see a listing of local bridges as a total to be released to the media. Only specific announcements when it is needed. This puts the managing government on notice to do something.

It slipped past almost unoticed, but an estimate of 26 tons, when it should have been 3, is a mistake of galactic proportions - it's out by almost a factor of 9!! The recommendation was ok for everything but the biggest trucks, when it should have been no motorised traffic at all! How on earth didn't heads roll when a mistake of that proportion was made??

@@paulhaynes8045 Because "now isn't the time to assign blame" and "we shouldn't play politics with this tragedy".

Didn't the passage of the massive infrastructure bill in Washington have something to do with it?

​@@merryhunt9153very likely. The bridge collapsing was great optics for getting the bill passed though that's for sure

Grenfell really illustrated the number of opportunities design, client and construction teams have to pass the buck. From cladding choices and missing fire break strips to lack of update to the fire evac strategy, there were so many opportunities for this cascade of events to have happened differently. Hell, even the fact that the fire was started by a faulty fridge after years of complaints by the residents shows that we could have done better simply by valuing and caring about the people living in social housing.

if its being resurfaced, that is a good sign that the DoT in the area has the funding and desire to maintain that bridge. i wouldn't stress about it.

Google says there are 222,000 bridges that need major repairs or replacement in the US. 36% of all bridges. So.. You have a bit less than a 2/3 chance of being perfectly ok. How do you feel about gambling? :D

@@scopie49 How many of those "bridges" are part of interstate highways? How many of those "bridges" are part of State highways? Its not 36% you illiterate, you have no concept of reality or you're being dishonest. I can not decide which is worse.

Except for the inspectors. They repeatedly documented everything wrong with the bridge, but had no power to get it repaired.

except the inspectors, who recorded the issue dutifully for nearly a decade, submitted their paperwork, and trusted it would be fixed in time. they were really let down by the system not having a way for those reports to initiate a repair. if you've ever worked in an environment that necessitates bureaucracy, you might be more understanding that even if these people did speak up to their superiors and say "hey these have been in dangerous condition for five years", the response would have been the same. their superior would say that the inspection report is all they need, that once its submitted the higher ups will make a decision on how to proceed. its a shame that it never actually happened.

@@arcanealchemist3190 Fair enough. The visual did show that the reports mentioned the severe problems for YEARS. I guess I can only echo Brady's thoughts - how can we design such a complicated system that doesn't actually work?

Except for the city's lawyers. Their job is to make sure that nobody is ever found legally liable for this mess.

@@jakedee4117is that confirmed?

Raise red flag, and shut down the system. Get reamed by 3 levels of middle management then fired 'for cause'.

Because then the politicians would be forced to deal with it, instead of ignoring the issue.

@@Br3ttM You mean like over here (Switzerland): Inspectors were a bit concerned about a major highway bridge. within a week, the clamped it full of instruments shut the highway down in the middle of the night, and got the military to run a main battle tank up and down for load testing. Next to years, they fixed it, without ever closing it down, working mostly at night.

​@@beyondEVI wouldn't brag about the fact that everyone had to work at night. it sucks being on those type of crews.

They'll need more to blame on Trump.

Promoting, not selling, and he has been doing it for a long time, much longer than that beard has existed.

I never make a comment about another mans public hair. . . . .

@@AlexxAmadeo I know. I love his channel. Just seems funny to me. Like the bald guy that sells Keeps You know who he is.... :)

Fewer contractors, more representatives. The city council has 9 members for 300k people - that's 33k a member. Great for a national legislature, but for a city? Abysmal.

Bill Maher says Democrats are insane.

Let me guess the demographic that dominates city council.

@@xr6lad Hello dogwhistle, how are you today?

Yup. In my experience, the people who put out fires got all the glory while taking the time for well-designed software was seen as extravagant.

I don't even mind doing ongoing gradually maintenance and improvements on a big software system, but that doesn't get me through the performance appraisal process. I would be a code janitor, refactoring, updating components, improving infrastructure, and rarely implementing a new feature. But software organizations would rather let a system crumble, and pay for a team to spend a year or two replacing it, rather then spend one person's time on an ongoing basis.

I had the same thought. Maybe we need some occasional “ribbon cuttings” for those mundane but necessary maintenance tasks.

Some people still think that the Y2K bug was a hoax. It wasn't, but only due to timely maintenance.

I instantly thought “wow this relates to scrum!”