I’ve said that different materials lend themselves to different forms, and that there is such a thing as a concrete-inflected structural type. That idea leads, unfortunately, to a discussion of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa last August. The bridge had a number fo different components (click on the picture above to expand it) …
That’s a picture of a handrail where the riverfront walkway meets a wood pseudo-pier. (“Pseudo” because I’ve never seen any kind of boat docked there but I have seen a fair number of sunbathers there.) The upper portions of the handrail are in good condition and have been repainted not so long ago; the embedded …
A couple of current projects involving neighboring construction, combined with CROSS/SCOSS newsletter 52, got me thinking about how we prevent structural failures and how we prevent minor or incipient failures from become tragedies. Obviously the first line of defense against failure is the work of structural engineers (in all capacities, including design, review, and inspection) and …
This article from the New York Times on the collapse of the central bridge of the highway viaduct in Genoa is worth reading. It covers the topic well and has excellent graphics to help explain some of the more difficult engineering topics. I generally do not want to spend a lot of time discussing current-day …
I was looking at fire damage in an old industrial building in Brooklyn and noticed that there were three distinct patterns. The photos below are from the top floor and the remnants of the hung plaster ceiling has been removed. (I) First, in some places the fire simply burned through – exceeded the timed rating …
