35W question
Now that the NTSB has reported the causes of the bridge collapse, my next question is, would they have had that much equipment on the bridge if they had taken a more proactive approach to maintenance?
posted by Tom Cleland @ 11/14/2008 07:40:00 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
It looks that way.
Put another way, what I'm wondering is did they have a backlog of emergency maintenance that caused them to require more equipment than if they had been performing routine maintenance on schedule? If they had less equipment on the bridge, it may have forestalled the eventual collapse, though of course we probably still would not have known about the problem to this day if that had been the case. Such odd and awkward twists of fate can leave one wondering what is the right thing to wish for.
Here's another idea. As part of their investigation, did the NTSB construct an identical gusset plate and test it under increasingly heavier weights to see how much it could bear? It seems such an experiment would be affordable and valuable. I doubt they ran such a test or we would have seen it on the news.
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