Schoharie Creek Bridge Disaster
Introduction On April 5, 1987, one of the largest flood on record hit Fort Hunter, New York. More specifically, this flood hit the Schoharie Creek Bridge, a New York State Thruway connecting Albany to New York City. This flood had caused one hundred feet of the bridge to collapse, as cars were crossing the bridge in attempt to escape the storm. As the storm collapsed it immediately took two vehicles with it, and 3 more cars followed. There were ten casualties. This failure lead to immediate investigation, that was long over due. This was a catastrophic engineering failure.
Cause of Incident The original bridge was built in 1953. For its time, it was considered a very sufficient design. The flood of 1951 had an affect on the decision making for its design. This flood was the largest flood on record at the time, and was thought to be a rare occurrence. So they …show more content…
“By nightfall, he said, more than 100 bridges spanning or near water had been inspected, with no major problems detected (Boorston).” The public immediately supported the bridge inspection program. There are many common disasters that could occur, scouring being one of the most common. “There were 17 other bridge failures due to scour in the northeastern states during the spring of 1987, and have been over 500 such failures recorded since 1950 (Field, 149).”
Conclusion The cause of the failure of the Schoharie Creek Bridge was scouring. The scouring hole was created because the riprap was poorly placed and the bridge was not properly inspected. The reason the riprap was poorly placed is because the engineer’s cross-section sketch of the footing was vague on describing how the riprap needed to be placed. This incident impacted our nation by bringing awareness to the importance of proper inspection of
Introduction On April 5, 1987, one of the largest flood on record hit Fort Hunter, New York. More specifically, this flood hit the Schoharie Creek Bridge, a New York State Thruway connecting Albany to New York City. This flood had caused one hundred feet of the bridge to collapse, as cars were crossing the bridge in attempt to escape the storm. As the storm collapsed it immediately took two vehicles with it, and 3 more cars followed. There were ten casualties. This failure lead to immediate investigation, that was long over due. This was a catastrophic engineering failure.
Cause of Incident The original bridge was built in 1953. For its time, it was considered a very sufficient design. The flood of 1951 had an affect on the decision making for its design. This flood was the largest flood on record at the time, and was thought to be a rare occurrence. So they …show more content…
“By nightfall, he said, more than 100 bridges spanning or near water had been inspected, with no major problems detected (Boorston).” The public immediately supported the bridge inspection program. There are many common disasters that could occur, scouring being one of the most common. “There were 17 other bridge failures due to scour in the northeastern states during the spring of 1987, and have been over 500 such failures recorded since 1950 (Field, 149).”
Conclusion The cause of the failure of the Schoharie Creek Bridge was scouring. The scouring hole was created because the riprap was poorly placed and the bridge was not properly inspected. The reason the riprap was poorly placed is because the engineer’s cross-section sketch of the footing was vague on describing how the riprap needed to be placed. This incident impacted our nation by bringing awareness to the importance of proper inspection of