5 ms·

This is a more popular story than the fact that the bridge collapsed in the first place?

freehunter 13y ago
I hadn't heard this story previously, so I was not sure what happened. I guess we're on the wrong site to get general news, of course a tech story would be ranked higher :)
- epochwolf 13y ago
  There's a link further down. The bridge had section collapsed last night after a truck hit an overhead beam. Edit: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-collapses-over-Skagit-River-4544826.php http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-c...
- stephengillie 13y ago
  I didn't post about it last night because: If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. Here's the Reddit thread a FB friend linked: http://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1ey32g/i5_bridge_in_burlington_has_collapsed_infoupdate/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1ey32g/i5_bridge_in...
willyt 13y ago
Further to this, it's a pretty interesting technical problem to think about why the bridge collapsed. A compression member or node at the top of the truss that forms the main span seems to have failed for some reason. The news story linked in another comment below says the truck hit something. This[0] secondary(tertiary?) truss looks like it might have taken a hit? It forms part of the horizontal truss above the carriageways which resists shear in the horizontal plane and therefore provides torsional stability; the bridge is effectively a braced tube, I think. Maybe the hit on that pulled the main compression member out of alignment enough for it to buckle? I'm not an engineer, but I'm pretty interested in engineering, I'd be interested to know if anyone with better knowledge can spot an obvious reason for the collapse. [0] http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-collapses-over-Skagit-River-4544826.php#next http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-c...
Trufa 13y ago
To be fair, the fact that the bridge collapsed, while it is news, it's no news for HN. The technological aspect of google maps being able to so quickly update it is in fact, new for HN. Another thing that I agree would be interesting is a detailed technical explanation of why the bridge collapse, that I'd assume would be HN material as well.
- scott_s 13y ago
  I don't think that something has to be strictly "technical" to be on HN. I would like to see the the story on how the bridge came to be in the state it is in on HN - not just the technical explanation for what happened, but why did we choose to allocate our resources in such a way that the failure occurred.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - trhtrsh 13y ago
    Comments on reddit mentioned that the bridge was condemned in 1992, and repeatedly since then, but no one bothered to fix it. I thought we had a big goverment stimulus package for shovel-ready projects over the past few years...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
ChuckMcM 13y ago
And here I thought its popularity would be due to someone alleging that the only way Google could respond that quickly is if they knew the bridge was collapsing. :-) But web apps are an amazing thing, and this is an advantage over the old Streets & Trips type databases.

I hadn't heard this story previously, so I was not sure what happened. I guess we're on the wrong site to get general news, of course a tech story would be ranked higher :)

epochwolf 13y ago
There's a link further down. The bridge had section collapsed last night after a truck hit an overhead beam. Edit: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-collapses-over-Skagit-River-4544826.php http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-c...
stephengillie 13y ago
I didn't post about it last night because: If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. Here's the Reddit thread a FB friend linked: http://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1ey32g/i5_bridge_in_burlington_has_collapsed_infoupdate/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1ey32g/i5_bridge_in...

willyt 13y ago

Further to this, it's a pretty interesting technical problem to think about why the bridge collapsed. A compression member or node at the top of the truss that forms the main span seems to have failed for some reason. The news story linked in another comment below says the truck hit something. This[0] secondary(tertiary?) truss looks like it might have taken a hit? It forms part of the horizontal truss above the carriageways which resists shear in the horizontal plane and therefore provides torsional stability; the bridge is effectively a braced tube, I think. Maybe the hit on that pulled the main compression member out of alignment enough for it to buckle? I'm not an engineer, but I'm pretty interested in engineering, I'd be interested to know if anyone with better knowledge can spot an obvious reason for the collapse. [0] http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-collapses-over-Skagit-River-4544826.php#next http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-c...

Trufa 13y ago

To be fair, the fact that the bridge collapsed, while it is news, it's no news for HN. The technological aspect of google maps being able to so quickly update it is in fact, new for HN. Another thing that I agree would be interesting is a detailed technical explanation of why the bridge collapse, that I'd assume would be HN material as well.

scott_s 13y ago
I don't think that something has to be strictly "technical" to be on HN. I would like to see the the story on how the bridge came to be in the state it is in on HN - not just the technical explanation for what happened, but why did we choose to allocate our resources in such a way that the failure occurred.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- trhtrsh 13y ago
  Comments on reddit mentioned that the bridge was condemned in 1992, and repeatedly since then, but no one bothered to fix it. I thought we had a big goverment stimulus package for shovel-ready projects over the past few years...
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

ChuckMcM 13y ago

And here I thought its popularity would be due to someone alleging that the only way Google could respond that quickly is if they knew the bridge was collapsing. :-) But web apps are an amazing thing, and this is an advantage over the old Streets & Trips type databases.