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Pedestrian steel bridge collapsed - Printable Version

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Pedestrian steel bridge collapsed - LiviuM - 11-28-2013

I find this story interesting.
Quote:They ignored signs which said it could only support 40 people, not hundreds

Because we design for some loads.
And most of the time the live load is limited by the available amount of space (2kN/sqm, about 200 kg/sqm, about 1 sumo warrior /sqm and looks reasonable.

But still it happens that we need to place a sign and say no more than 50 kg/sqm.
Because at first look there should be no reason for larger loads. Moreover a sign is there and so any additional loading Happy is prevented.

What about the blind guys or those who don't like to read signs, like myself Happy.

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The bridge is pinned maximum bending moment at middle according the video it looks like the collapse is caused by lateral buckling of the
handrail which is compressed, the top chord of the truss.

If the bridge was up side down, most likely it could have supported many sumo warriors.
Funny though they had handrail to prevent few from falling into watter but still they all got into water.
A fragile design, one point of failure. Finally a money issue, why build both handrail and chord when you can reuse the chord and place a sign (clearly visible for blind people, from a distance in crowded conditions Happy).

And instead of placing signs, some design handrails for out of plane loads caused by crowds who push it, in this case helping it buckle faster.