Taxpayer Dollars at Work: Vancouver's New $3.3bn Port Mann Bridge Closes After Falling Ice Damages C - Polidicks

[img]http://www.vancouversun.com/7722765.bin[/img] [img]http://www.vancouversun.com/7723096.bin[/img] [quote] Authorities closed the new Port Mann Bridge for hours Wednesday after falling ice and “snow bombs” injured two drivers and reportedly damaged dozens of vehicles. The debris starting dropping at around 1:30 p.m., crashing onto roofs and windshields and turning the eight open lanes of the bridge into a winter motorist’s nightmare. A piece of ice plummeted onto driver Keith Pearce’s Jeep, leaving a deep dent on the driver’s side of the hood. He said the falling ice looked like “grenades going off” as it hit the roadways around him. “You were basically just looking up and hoping and praying that nothing lands on your vehicle,” Pearce said. Pictures posted to Twitter showed a number of destroyed windshields that were allegedly hit by ice, and user James Lepp tweeted that “snow bombs” falling from the support wires above the bridge broke his rear view mirror. ICBC said it has already received a staggering 60 claims from people who said their cars were damaged on the Port Mann Wednesday. Mounties confirmed two people were hurt, but could not say how badly they were injured. Sgt. Peter Thiessen said an ambulance was called to help at least one of them. Authorities closed the bridge in both directions from about 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., when they deemed it was once again safe to cross. The Transportation Investment Corporation, a Crown company tasked with implementing the $3.3 billion Port Mann/Highway 1 Improvement Project, said the mishap is not unique to the new toll bridge. “Snow can accumulate on any structure over roadways, and no bridge is immune to it, but what we saw today was a very unusual combination of winter conditions,” company CEO Mike Proudfoot said. “Other stay cable bridges have experienced similar situations.” But engineering professor Dr. Perry Adebar from the University of British Columbia said the design of the Port Mann may have made it more prone to such mishaps. While bridges like the Alex Fraser have cables running perpindicular to the roadways, the cables on the Port Mann converge at two towers located in the middle of the bridge – effectively stretching directly above traffic. “If snow and ice accumulates on the inclined cables, and then melts and falls from the cables, much of it will fall onto the roadway,” Adebar said in an email. Proudfoot defended the layout of the bridge, saying it was designed so that ice would slide down the cables and off the sides, as opposed to dropping onto the roadway.[/quote] [url=http://bc.ctvnews.ca/falling-ice-injures-2-motorists-damages-cars-on-port-mann-bridge-1.1085923]**SOURCE**[/url] Public opinion was divided on the bridge after we got told that it was going to be tolled just like the Golden Ears Bridge (Never heard of it? That's because nobody wants to pay to cross the fucking thing) and it was going to be $7 two-way. Of course now we find that we dumped everything into a bridge that looks cool but on its first winter storm totally isn't safe worth shit. [quote]what we saw today was a very unusual combination of winter conditions[/quote] Bullshit. We get these storms several times a year. Admit you fucked up you scumbag piece of shit. Of course, one of the solutions that was offered because a fix will be so expensive is to close the bridge during similar storms. Thankfully the Transportation Minister shot that idea down but jesus christ I do not pay taxes for this shit. For only $2.2bn we could of had the Broadway Subway well under construction by now and I'm sure we could of lived with the old Port Mann for another decade.

you've got to be shiting me

jesus christ, imagine just driving along and having some fucking spike of ice crash through your windshield out of nowhere

Maybe they need to add a roof?

[QUOTE=The golden;38915962]Probably going to have to install heaters on the cables or some shit. Have them come during bad weather conditions.[/QUOTE] ya that'll show those workers! who had nothing to do with how the bridge was designed... unless i'm missing something here?

[QUOTE=BellyButton;38915842]jesus christ, imagine just driving along and having some fucking spike of ice crash through your windshield out of nowhere[/QUOTE] I would've probably crashed, instantly.

[QUOTE=BellyButton;38915842]jesus christ, imagine just driving along and having some fucking spike of ice crash through your windshield out of nowhere[/QUOTE] There IS a video floating around somewhere of exactly that and I heard it at least half a dozen times on the radio today but Youtube is being a whore and isn't giving me any related results so you get this instead: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsC-dYB496A[/media]

[QUOTE=The Article] the cables on the Port Mann converge at two towers located in the middle of the bridge – effectively stretching directly above traffic.[/QUOTE] What idiot designed that? Seriously? Putting high-tension wires directly above traffic, simply for the "aesthetic appeal" of the thing is one of the dumbest, most narcissistic things Architects can do.

Some people really need to think about how conditions like snow wind and rain come into effect with your building plan. This reminds me of the time when a city installed lights that wouldn't give off heat, causing it to be covered in it snow and blocking the lights.

Heard about this yesterday, crazy how people were stopping and taking photos of the damage. Someone's new car got like dents everywhere because of this from what I also heard.

[QUOTE=BellyButton;38915842]jesus christ, imagine just driving along and having some fucking spike of ice crash through your windshield out of nowhere[/QUOTE] I'd probably loose all control of my bowels.

[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;38916145]Some people really need to think about how conditions like snow wind and rain come into effect with your building plan. [B]This reminds me of the time when a city installed lights that wouldn't give off heat[/B], causing it to be covered in it snow and blocking the lights.[/QUOTE] How do some people think these are good ideas?

[QUOTE=FlubberNugget;38917159]How do some people think these are good ideas?[/QUOTE] Save the environment, or lower electrical bills. Stuff like that happens all the time. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[QUOTE=Zephyrs;38917621]Save the environment, or lower electrical bills. Stuff like that happens all the time. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.[/QUOTE] And that is going to save the environment...how? Lower electrical bills is reasonable, but still sounds like a stupid idea

[QUOTE=FlubberNugget;38917665]And that is going to save the environment...how? Lower electrical bills is reasonable, but still sounds like a stupid idea[/QUOTE] Lower power consumption. GO GREEN! BURN LESS FUEL. Disregarding the fact that a lot of power efficient devices have much higher production costs in terms of power, negating their actual usefulness. Actually this is the case with a lot of greenwashed stuff.

You build a bridge in Canada. You make sure it can't protect the users from the effects of winter. Right.

Hey guys lets build a new 3 billion dollar bridge right before a prolonged fossil fuel shortage, instead of making bigger investments in rapid transit, [I]then[/I] lets drop ice on the cars that drive across it [editline]21st December 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=BCell;38916050]Maybe they need to add a roof?[/QUOTE] I can see the headlines now "New 1.2mn Port Mann Bridge Roof Collapses After Being covered in 5 tonnes of wet snow"

[QUOTE=FlubberNugget;38917665]And that is going to save the environment...how? Lower electrical bills is reasonable, but still sounds like a stupid idea[/QUOTE] Light bulbs give off heat because of their inefficiency (some of the power gets converted into thermal energy instead of light) If they're not giving off any heat, they're either using all the power for light (much brighter lights for the power usage) or not using as much power as the alternatives

[QUOTE=HellSoldier;38917997]You build a bridge in Canada. You make sure it can't protect the users from the effects of winter. Right.[/QUOTE] I live really close to the bridge, and I can say that we usually don't get that much snow (or any snow at all some times) As of now, the snow has been melting for two days, and there's no more snow expected for the year.

[QUOTE=FlubberNugget;38917159]How do some people think these are good ideas?[/QUOTE] I don't know they thought it would "Save power" and make the planet "Greener"