[ghodlur]

This is a tragic incident. My heart goes out to the families who must be waiting for the beloved ones who had boarded that ill fated buses. At the same time I feel irritated for the fact that the state govt had been sleeping over the complaints raised by the locals. The bridge structure could not have weakened in the last few days. It must have crumbling slowly over the past few months or years. Leave apart any proactive structural inspections, the govt did not heed to the warnings by the locals. The bridge should have been closed at the start of the monsoon. Its like the holes in the swiss cheese aligned perfectly for the incident to happen. The overflowing river was the trigger.

The pics posted above are really scary with half of the bridge disappearing. Should not say but isn't the new bridge integrity also in question here.

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by smartcat

What is the gist of the Hindi news article about the condition of...

The Marathi news article from 3rd September 2013 shows the condition of the bridge then, with trees and bushes growing out of it. It laments the state of maintenence by the NHAI.

And that was 3 years ago.

[AutoIndian]

Latest news. The dead body of the bus driver, Kamble has been found 150 kms away from the bridge at Anjarle beach. Some fishermen identified the khaki dress and his identity was confirmed from the badge #8234 on his shirt.

Edit: Another body of a woman found near Harihareshwar beach, which is 100 kms away from the accident site. Body's identity has not been ascertained yet so it is not sure if she was one of the bus passengers.

[abirnale]

Slight deviation but this could be another tragedy waiting to happen on similar lines -



Maharashtra seems to be full of such bridges. This one is on Hiranyakeshi River near Ajara. The crowd that goes to GOA from MH via Ajara might have seen it. According to this news snippet, The bridge is declared end of life 40 years ago.

[sumitdongerkery]

This is literally hair raising news. Mere thought of it gives me goosebumps. It is very normal for any one to zoom past such bridges since nobody would ever imagine half of it to be missing. Only God knows what the passengers of the vehicles would have gone through at that moment. In one of the news channel, PWD officials confirmed to the CM that they had checked the fitness of the bridge and given clearance this May. Just shows the way how seriously it is being done.

[poised2drive]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Latest news. The dead body of the bus driver, Kamble has been found 150 kms away from the bridge at Anjarle beach. Some fishermen identified the khaki dress and his identity was confirmed from the badge #8234 on his shirt.

Edit: Another body of a woman found near Harihareshwar beach, which is 100 kms away from the accident site. Body's identity has not been ascertained yet so it is not sure if she was one of the bus passengers.

That sends a chill down my spine !

Bodies swept away more than 100 km and no trace of vehicles yet seems straight out of a natural horror movie...

And watching the River at its full propensity, it would be nothing less than a miracle if there are any survivors.

Meanwhile, the fury of the river is posing a challenge to the rescue mission and a boat with NDRF personnel capsized in the river and they had to be rescued by a chopper.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...ref=sliderNews

I hope at least this incident should alert NHAI and other PWD Authorities across India to immediately check and verify the safety of other older/riskier structures and given the forecast of a surplus monsoon, this should be done on a war footing.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I am no civil engineer, not even a builder, but I do not see why any such structure should have an end-of-life. If the brick/stone-work is properly pointed when necessary, the mortar inside should be good forever.

With maintenance it might have lasted centuries more. Without, things fall apart very quickly, especially when water starts rushing.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I am no civil engineer, not even a builder, but I do not see why any such structure should have an end-of-life. If the brick/stone-work is properly pointed when necessary, the mortar inside should be good forever.

With maintenance it might have lasted centuries more. Without, things fall apart very quickly, especially when water starts rushing.

Exactly!

While many would point to public structures of similar vintage around the world still in-use today, it would also be prudent to account for the scrupulous maintenance that goes into keeping such structures use-worthy.

I doubt this bridge had seen any real maintenance work for a long while. Either way, the person(s) responsible for the bridge should be arrested and prosecuted for voluntary manslaughter.

[Engine_Roars]

My father is a simple, caring man. He lives in my hometown with my mother and he knows my love for cars, bikes, roads and travel. The moment he heard about this news, he called me to make sure that I stay in my house for this monsoon season and avoid going on any road trips. I understand how he feels but obviously, I can not, will not stay at home.

Point being, Indian roads are becoming dangerous every passing day and you can never be sure if you will return to your loved ones safe and sound.

May god gives strength to the families and may the departed souls rest in peace!!

[tharian]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

With maintenance it might have lasted centuries more. Without, things fall apart very quickly, especially when water starts rushing.

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

While many would point to public structures of similar vintage around the world still in-use today, it would also be prudent to account for the scrupulous maintenance that goes into keeping such structures use-worthy.

I doubt this bridge had seen any real maintenance work for a long while..

Apart from layers of asphalt adding to the weight and of course the huge load of traffic which the engineers who built this would have never thought of, I don't think there would have ever been a re-furbish process carried out.

It is the general mentality in the country. Build it and leave it. Best example being our roads.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I am no civil engineer, not even a builder, but I do not see why any such structure should have an end-of-life. If the brick/stone-work is properly pointed when necessary, the mortar inside should be good forever.

With maintenance it might have lasted centuries more. Without, things fall apart very quickly, especially when water starts rushing.

I have a civil engineer in the family who specializes in structural designing. Every structure, be it of steel, brick-and-mortar or RCC (reinforced cement concrete), has a shelf life.

Our residential buildings have a typical safe-life of around 40 years. Not that they will collapse beyond that, or should not be used; but the inherent load bearing capacity goes down. As does the capacity to withstand wind and other natural forces.

Flyovers for example, need their bearings (the ones that buffer between the slab and the pillar), to be serviced and changed periodically. But that is rarely ever done.

Ultimately, all these structures deteriorate due to wear and tear and of course, loss of inherent strength/capability of their building blocks; and there is no reason why they would continue endlessly provided regular maintenance.

[Doc_nikhil]

First of all, my heart felt sympathies to the families of the victims and prayers for the victims themselves. Really sad news to wake up to. Cannot imagine how the victims must have felt in their last moments of life before plunging into the murky, torrid dark waters below. This was, if I understood correctly, despite warning from Britain that the bridge is EOL. That speaks volumes of the ignorant and lazy people running the show. Unless they were affected by this tragedy, and I doubt they were, there will not be any tears spilt amongst them.

The astonishing fact is that, we also saw an Emirates flight from TVM crash land on Dubai, but, thankfully, all the passengers and crew got out safe before the aircraft went up in flames. This was an unexpected accident and all of lives were saved, but the bridge, which was given notice much much earlier, collapsed due to sheer negligence of the maintenance. And lives were lost. This was a disaster that could have been averted, unlike the Emirates crash, which could have been much worse.

As someone pointed out, no one is really held responsible for such accidents in India, or atleast, I have not seen any justice being served to those culpable. Whereas in the first world countries the people responsible for such disasters are out behind bars for life, booked under man slaughter and homicide. That keeps the maintence and work contractors in line. This rarely, if never, happens. I guess there is a reason why they are first world countries and we are in the third world countries list despite having some really good brains and brawn on our side.

Really tragic. We would talk about this for a few days and resume our routine lives, but the dark truth is, this how rusted the administration is and there is going to be no palpable change other than compensation packages being distributed and some knee jerk reactions for other bridges and infrastructure nearing their EOL. And we pay through our nose for taxes, for what? So that they can give compensation for the victim's families when such things happen? Or so that we actually get an infrastructure that doesn't kill the common man? Everytime we step out, I guess there is a good reason we step out with a prayer.

India is corrupt, and people who have tried to put an end to it have either been ridiculed or pushed to the sidelines with some defamation cases on them or simply murdered. No wonder no one wants to come forward for changing the place.

Whatever said and done, it is not going to turn back time and bring the dead back to life. All we can do is, observe a moment of silence for them.

- D_n

[The Rationalist]

Many are blaming the unfortunate drivers for being careless. How easy! Imagine you going through the same route for years and knowing the roads by your palm, the bus drivers might have crossed the same bridge few hours earlier and how on earth do they expect the bridge to have vanished? I will narrate an experience I had few years back. I'm a very proactive driver, who is constantly looking for any potential dangers. I was working in a small town in Kottayam. In a heavy rainy season , instead of taking an acute bend on my way back, I missed it and went straight down a road which was declining and all of a sudden I'm seeing my headlights getting reflected in different layers. I made an emergency braking, to my horror I was seeing the reflection of my cars headlight in the mighty Meenachil river in its monsoon fury. I have been driving for two decades, and I was shivering to death. Till this date that incident send chills down my spine. Imagine you in those vehicles and suddenly the bridge giving away. Can anyone of us do anything? Please don't speculate about something which we don't have any first hand information. We are better than that at team-bhp.

[poised2drive]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I am no civil engineer, not even a builder, but I do not see why any such structure should have an end-of-life. If the brick/stone-work is properly pointed when necessary, the mortar inside should be good forever.

With maintenance it might have lasted centuries more. Without, things fall apart very quickly, especially when water starts rushing.

Being a Civil Engineer [ and a PWD Official], I'd try to add a bit.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Every structure, be it of steel, brick-and-mortar or RCC (reinforced cement concrete), has a shelf life.

As does the capacity to withstand wind and other natural forces.


Ultimately, all these structures deteriorate due to wear and tear and of course, loss of inherent strength/capability of their building blocks; and there is no reason why they would continue endlessly provided regular maintenance.

In addition to the above, the bridge collapsed was a masonry structure, which can easily sustain a century [ given if it is properly maintained], but the most perilous problem for any masonry structure [ be it a bridge or dam] is the Water and the most common cause of the collapse of bridges is the Scouring of the Foundation [ and it seems to be the case from the pics]

The gushing water could have removed the materials from the foundation due to the increased turbulence and it becomes almost impossible to detect it during the flooding seasons.

Many underappreciate the cumulative action of water. Water enters the bridge, no matter how exceptional the workmanship of the masonry may be.

As it is said, nature will find its way.

Engineers can only recognize the spots where the water erodes/saturates the building materials -mortar and rectify them by grouting but only to an extent. Nevertheless, The water will gradually weaken the structure by finding a way through.
Further, the wind erodes the materials and exacerbate the situation.

Are the NHAI officials at fault ? Or is it a case of unprecedented nature fury ?

It could only be known after the report of the inquiry.

[silverado]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

The answer is very simple: don't overdrive!

What that means is: [list][*]Drive so that your braking distance is less than visible road ahead - this applies to good weather, rainy/foggy weather, and nighttime

Sorry sir, I beg to differ. At 11.30 at night on a very heavy rainy day, it is very difficult to spot a bridge which has crashed, especially on a highway which most people are used to.

This is much more than usual unexpected things which we expect on Indian roads. ( Hope its not too confusing to read )

That bridge may not have street lights ( I assume ) and once you see a pitch dark black spot after usual tarmac, your mind will take some time to actually accept that fact that there is no road.

It would surely have been detected had it been daytime.
Also since approach to bridge is a straight line, I assume cars must be doing good speeds, so even if they spotted it , it must have been too late to brake!

Think about a bridge which we usually take day in day out, you simply take it for granted and would drive at same speeds as you do usually on it.