Sample engineering assessment of damage to road bridge after rail tanker fire underneath it.
• important to know what burned and for how long
• Figure 3 shows the mapping of certain damage indicators to the piers near, and span above, the rail tanker.
If this photo is accurate:
• rail bed beside burnt car appears to have sunk 10-15 cm
• some concrete sleepers appear to be missing there
• steel channel without sleepers between the rails is missing
• side of bridge behind men appears to have sagged
Don't know when this video was taken, but while these cranes are on the bridge trying to remove the rail cars (hours? days?) it is doubtful trains can travel on the other tracks.
Especially if the cranes need the tracks during any part of the operation.
Closer video of damage to the structure of the bridge.
Both upper and lower steel maintenance walkways have melted and sagged. This steel failure is an indicator of the heat energy coming from the tanker fires.
Even after the blast, how bad is Russia's security on Crimean Bridge? Even on the rail bridge, someone is openly taking video, then uploading:
• repair progress
• rail and rail bed damage
• which suggest how much heat released
• road bridge damage
Repair progress. At the time of video, of the 7 tank cars that caught fire:
• 2 complete cars remain on rails
• 1 car has tank removed, but frame and bogies remain, still coupled to next car's bogie
• 2 cars have 4 bogies left
• 2 cars fully removed
The heat is so intense that:
• the rail under the wheels collapsed
• the rail car axles warped
Priceless information for fire investigators, civil engineers, metallurgical engineers, bomb damage experts.
Two days ago, @zahed gave an initial assessment from the photos & videos available then. His civil engineering degree gives him a better foundation to understand them than my industrial systems engineering degree. I'm following now for any updates.
@mentions@zahed Rail bed damage.
• apparent sinking under 2 remaining tanker cars
• crushed stone between concrete sleepers missing
• suggests damage to underlying box structure
Maybe bridge is too weak to bring back cranes to lift tanks off, and rail too damaged to pull those cars away.
@mentions@zahed It seems:
• on one end of the fire, bogies & wheels have fused from the heat and cannot be pulled
• on the other end, the rail bed and underlying structure are too weak to bring back the cranes
This might be why all the people in orange vests are there: looking for solutions.
@mentions@zahed This video also show poor state of road bridge:
• intentionally bottlenecked to one lane
• red/white barriers adjacent to remaining rail cars
• no traffic on it - people on foot looking at it
• deflection and slant obvious, matches earlier video released by Russia
@mentions@zahed Around 20-second mark of earlier video from a car driving off that damaged section of road bridge, you hear a kerthunk.
This might be normal for such joints, or it may be from a larger deflection due to the explosion destroying the adjacent road span.
This @ConversationUK article released a few hours before the video from atop the rail bridge has 2 engineering professors - experts in bridge safety and blast engineering - assessing the damage revealed at the time. I'm interested in their updates too.
🧵 Alberta's Reigning Queen of deceptive cherry-picked public health stats, Health Min LaGrange, was back at it Monday, this time over measles immunization.
Bonus Topic: Where is the source for the widespread claim that airborne measles is only infectious up to two (2) hours?
@TheBreakdownAB @JMeddings @PfParks @LukaszukAB @JenLeeCBC @GosiaGasperoPhD @Mark_Ungrin @dupuisj @DrFiliatrault @TimmCTV Let me provide the links for the above two graphics:
@TheBreakdownAB @JMeddings @PfParks @LukaszukAB @JenLeeCBC @GosiaGasperoPhD @Mark_Ungrin @dupuisj @DrFiliatrault @TimmCTV On the deceptive, cherry-picked measles immunization stats, LaGrange said "Since March 16, there has been a 67% increase in comparison to last year."
The VP who oversees the restaurant was not on, but I left my business card.
My @Hyatt loyalty card, which shows zero as it has not updated for my purchases since February, when my car died, and I found walking there convenient. High prices, but matching food & service (!)
@Hyatt Now, I don’t care about my points, as I will never visit @HyattCalgary again, for any reason.
I won’t spend much time with the VP if he or she calls me. This is their problem to solve, not mine. I’ll get nothing from it either way - I’m gone.
Dear @CalgaryPolice and other smart people. I'm looking for 2 things:
• video of press conference and written response by Chief @neufeld_mark to Dreeshen's stupid announcement early Dec 2024
• GoA policy & evidence to get sites approved for photo radar
@CalgaryPolice @neufeld_mark I didn't know until now of this formal 12-month pilot while looking for more information related to my witnessing a cop nearly killed on Centre Street @ Samis Road on Sat night by a speeder who pulled over, then zoomed away.
@CalgaryPolice @neufeld_mark @reportrix @MBellefontaine I always knew Dreeshen's announcement, served in a "No Cash Cow" BBQ apron with Beef on a Bun for reporters, was colossally stupid.
I learned it kicked in on 1 April.
Will talk on record about my direct personal experience from this Saturday night.
🧵I live dangerously. Last night I was on the Red Line headed north from Somerset, shortly after the après-Flames crowd had thinned.
I threw on my respirator as I boarded (measles is transmitted by aerosol, as are COVID and influenza and RSV, etc)
You know where this goes…
A fellow train rider already seated 1 m away to my left took issue with it, even though (I swear) I did not offer him a respirator to wear.
So, even if I were to believe Droplet nonsense, we were within each other’s 2 m ABSOLUTELY SAFE SOCIAL DISTANCING MINIMUM.
Chatty fellow.
He asked me if I was aware “that f-ing thing did nothing for me.”
As I had not reviewed the gentleman’s curriculum vitae before our impromptu debate, I chose to nod, in submission to his likely superior IPAC gravitas.
🧵Respected Alberta political scientist @DuaneBratt posted in the friendlier place this same-day review of Health Min LaGrange's Statement of Defence in wrongful termination lawsuit from fired AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos.
@DuaneBratt AB Justice Minister posted a link to the Statement of Defence from the Dropbox of a Heather Jenkins, who appears to be the Ministry's Press Secretary.
@DuaneBratt GoA is again using external counsel rather than (excellent) in-house lawyers, just as they did in CM v Alberta in 2022, when LaGrange was Minister of Education.
Taxpayers paid for their representation + Justice Dunlop's penalty to pay Plaintiff's Costs.
I've tagged my MLA Kathleen Ganley on this, as she is a lawyer and former Justice Minister. I am neither, so I would appreciate her review of this, with advisors at @albertaNDP as required.
It is baffling to me, but as a layperson I looked deeper...