View Single Post
  #64  
Old July 12th 18, 12:52 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
John B. Slocomb
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 547
Default drill/tap in frames

On Wed, 11 Jul 2018 17:44:49 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 7/11/2018 12:25 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:

One might comment that a fairly large number of bridges, that
subsequently fell down, were designed by the engineers of the times


Locally, the current hot problem is a historic and well-loved pedestrian
suspension bridge in a park.

One know-it-all claims he talked to one engineer who said "It's reached
the end of its useful life" and offered to design a replacement for
several thousand dollars, which would require many tens of thousands of
dollars to build. Know-it-all wanted the village to hire the guy on the
spot.

When there was skepticism, the know-it-all (a marketing guy, BTW)
brought in another engineer. Know-it-all claims this engineer said "I'd
close it immediately for safety reasons." No details from either of
those engineers on what might possibly fail. In fact, no direct
communication from them at all. All we have is know-it-all's version of
their views.


I'm not sure I'd heap all the blame on the two engineers. A casual
conversation can easily be interpreted :-)

Given that doing oil exploration in the jungles can result in a lot of
bridges being built one of out clients wanted some engineering data on
"Wooden Bridges" which in the U.S. is, apparently, difficult to find.
Luckily we hired an Australian Bloke who had worked for the Tasmania
Timber Development who are still design and building fairly good sized
wooden bridges.

Shortly after we "discovered" Tasmania one of our people in the U.S.
came across a retired guy who used rebuild wood bridges for the
railroad and he still had a bunch of reference material that we
copied.

Meanwhile another registered Professional Engineer examined it and
reported in detail, saying that there is no danger at all, that safety
factors are in the hundreds, that only minor repairs are needed, and
that those can be done by volunteers.

I'm a retired PE, and I agree with that guy. But we'll see which way the
politics go.


I've always had good luck paying for a "preliminary report" to include
recommendations. I find that most people get rather conservative when
asked to "Sign the Report".
--

Cheers,

John B.
Ads
 

Home - Home - Home - Home - Home