Oz is have a hard time because we are still above the radar with the rest of the world, our emotional energy has gone been depleted as much, but they are certainly working hard to change that reality.
I've been asking myself the same question Askilla. I live less than 20minutes from the epicentre... this is not good news.
Korumburra again Karenicon_afraid... same as the last one, that's too close for my comfort. I felt this one too, but when I did I thought it was my imagination I kid you not. This one was weaker than the last that's for sure. But that doesn't make it any safer. They've come very close to one and other, we may be in for a shock soon... I hope not. I hope I'm home IF a big one hits as I can run a few yards out my front door and jump into the sea if I don't get swollowed by a newly formed crevice on my way there... then I'll have to hope that a tidal wave doesn't swamp me.
It is hard to have an earthquake plan! Its not like a fire or flood, so all you can do it hold on.. they say more are coming, I just hope its not a big one! Just make sure you stay off the Westgate for awhile.. what does anyone do is this situation?
Enjoy the flashing of their life before their very eyes before the show finishes... if the fall doesn't kill you, the 1,000's of tons of conrete that follows you will... unless you jump off in the opposite direction to it's fall.
Do you recall the sole Greek labourer who survived the collapse in the eary '70s during its construction when 35 others died Karen? Two years into construction of the bridge, on October 15, 1970, the 112m span between piers 10 and 11, collapsed and fell 50 m to the ground and water below. 35 construction workers were killed but this bloke survived. He was sitting over the very edge of the bridge near its highest point eating a cut lunch. The instant he felt it rumbling he stood up and took a running jump off it and landed feet first into the river which had a high tide at the time. Had it not been for the high tide, he'd have landed in about 3-4foot of water, which would have assured his death. It was the extra 'meter' depth that was JUST ENOUGH to break his fall without killing him. He ended up a foot in the silty bottom and was able to push himself out of it and swim to safety. He said if it wasn't for his steel tipped boots that he may have broken a foot or leg which would have spelt disaster for him. When you round the road on the western side of it that runs directly under the bridge in Williamstown/Newport and passes in front of the Newport power station further north , there is a parking bay and a commemorative plaque on the bridge's massive support which sits along side the parking bay. He landed only some 10-20 off the bank of the river on the northern side of that support. If you go there are low tide, you can see how ridicoulously shallow the ater was where he handed. It was a shear miricle, nothing else. He passed away only a few years ago a happy old man.
I wouldn't wish to try it myself that's for sure.icon_escape
lolol
... and knowing my luck Karen, if a big quake hits our area, it'll be while I'm snoring my head off in bed. I hope I can dive from the second story out across 20yards of land and land in the water during a high tide ONLY.
Good story of a disaster Andrew X and he was Greek hey! I was very young when it collapsed but I do have flash memories because my dad was working on the bridge at the time, but was in no danger. If a big one hits Melbourne, I just hope I am home in the bush! And hope you are out in the ocean on a fishing trip.. you are one lucky man to live that close to the beachââ¬Â¦
Wow!! Your dad was there?? boy he was lucky not be near or under it at the time. Gee Karen... why's it that we're talking about this (possible) quake as though we know it's coming?
That's the scariest part about it I think.
Here's a gut wrenching account of the people involed in the accident. It made me choke as I read it, gripping stuff and quite sad. I've added the part about the metal's color as it's temperature rises to give people an understanding of why the metal on the bridge turned blue as it was giving way. Once again, it's the poor old battler that paid the ultimate price for someone elses stuff up, be it an unintentional one. Though even that I'm beginning to question if you read what I unearthed here, just above the main account I refered to:
Quote:Jack, 42, the resident engineer for the bridge designers, Freeman Fox and Partners, had been sent out from London . Only a few weeks before, Ian and Jack had assured the men the bridge was safe after a similar bridge at Milford Haven, Wales , had collapsed and killed four men. Now this span was giving trouble. :shock:
Ian and Jack walked a few steps towards each other when suddenly the bridge groaned. An eerie pinging noise filled the air. Jack and Ian looked down and saw flakes of rust peeling off the steel. The bolts were turning blue. The bridge fell away beneath their feet.
The victims
Almost as soon as he put the phone down, Gerit Hardenberg heard the low rumbling sound coming across the river. It grew, like the side of a mountain falling on top of him, and then faded into silence. What Gerit Hardenberg could not hear was the eerie pinging noise that came from the flakes of rust peeling off weathered steel or the jarring screech of metal moving slowly across metal. What he could not see was the men holding their hands to their ears to block out the noise or the look of terror in their faces as they saw things that should have been firm and solid begin to move and parts of the metal's colour change to a strange kind of blue*.
The whole 2,000-ton mass plummeted into the Yarra mud with an explosion of gas, dust and mangled metal that shook buildings hundreds of yards away. Homes were spattered with flying mud. The roar of the impact, the explosion and the fire that followed could be heard more than two miles away.
But by the time men, who had been hurled into the river below, had surfaced from the depths all they could hear was the clanging of loose metal and the crackle of the fire. As they clawed their muddy, oil-soaked bodies out of the river those who could walk or talk began searching and calling out for their mates. The huge span lay like a broken and beached battleship beside them and, as they heard the first shrill sounds of the sirens, they knew it was time to comfort the injured and count the dead.
The rescue teams found 32 bodies that day, men like Jouzaf Ozelis, 23, of North Altona, who was planning to marry 19-year-old Regina Buzinkas; Cyril Carmichael, 19, of North Fitzroy, who was about to announce his engagement to Glenys Fone; George Tsehilios, 32, who had sold his blacksmith shop in Greece to come to Australia and had saved for eight years to buy a home in Altona for his wife and two sons.
There was Ross Bigmore, 22 of Reservoir, a carpenter who was to have married Maureen Jones on Melbourne Cup Day, November 3, and Tony Falzon, 32, also a carpenter, who had emigrated from Malta seven years before. Then there was foreman Charles Lund, 41, who had already packed his bags to leave the bridge and take his wife, Leigh, and seven children up to Queensland where he would work on the Mackay Bridge and be near his mother. Irene Woods rushed from her job to be with her four children when she learned her husband, Pat, 32, had been killed.
Mrs Butters of Edna Grove, East Coburg, had to wait eight days for the body of her husband, Bernard, 49, to float to the surface after crumpled scaffolding was moved. "I knew it was hopeless after the first night", she said. "It was only a matter of time".
In those interminable seconds before the huge span plummeted 150 feet into the mud and waters of Melbourne's River Yarra, a young migrant, boilermaker's assistant, Charlie Sant, had the presence of mind to sit down on a box and await the worst. It was too late to run. Some others alongside him rode the bridge down and, while they didn't walk away, managed to smile through their pain as rescue workers reached them.
Then there was rigger Ed Halsall who looked up from the ground and saw the bridge falling on him. His legs took over from his numbed brain and he found himself running at full pelt. As he ran the impact of the span hitting the ground sent a blast of wind behind Ed which lifted him off the ground and flung him to safety.
And assistant rigger Des Gibson still couldn't work out what happened to him. He was on one knee working on top of the span when it opened up in front of him like an earthquake's gash. He toppled forward into the bowels of the hollow span and went down inside, bouncing around like a rubber ball. Not even a bone was broken. Desmond Gibson was 29 when the bridge went down with him inside it, praying. He turned grey within months. His recurring terrible dreams of the bridge falling brought on three heart attacks. His death on August 4, 1973 - from his fourth attack - at the age of 32 brought the number of men the bridge has killed to 37.
The toll had reached 36 in December 1972 when a rigger working on the bridge reconstruction fell 170 ft to his death.
Derrick driver Vincent Rosewarne, 24 of Hastings , can thank a small piece of wire mesh. It cushioned his fall and bounced him back into the air like a trampoline while the bridge crashed around him. Vince ended up with a broken nose, two broken arms and a fractured leg.
The only thing Scots-born rigger Brian Fullerton, 24, could remember was waking up in hospital with his head bandaged and a long scar across his face. His mates in the Federated Ironworkers Union paid for his mother, Mrs Sidney Seay, to fly over from New Zealand to see him.
John Thwaites, 42, got away with two black eyes. "I feel as if I've just gone ten rounds with Lionel Rose," he said. John just grabbed a girder and held on all the way down.
John Laino was still wearing his John Holland safety helmet after the span went down, and boilermaker George Stassoulakos of Northcote also escaped without a scratch.
"But the shaking continued and I knew something had to be wrong. The bridge started to sink quietly and smoothly. It was like slow motion. I grabbed the ropes of the catwalk and the next thing I knew I was under the water. When I surfaced I waited for the bridge to come down on me, but it was not there any more. I saw two blokes and they were hurt, but they could walk. We just waded out of the water, and lay on the bank. All around me I could see people. All hurt. All piecesââ¬Â¦"
Section Engineer Bill Tracy, 28, of Cheltenham, rigger, Desmond Gibson, 29, of Preston and rigger Frank Piermarini, 34, of Lalor were among the initial survivors.
Frank, a rigger, and an Italian, could not remember much of the crash. "As I tried to scramble out the world seemed to go into a massive slide," he said in hospital later that day. " By some grace of God I was spared."
Bill Tracy died three weeks later without regaining consciousness.
Frank Piermarini died 10 weeks later. Desmond Gibson had nearly three years of nightmares and heart attacks before he died in August 1973.
* As the temperature of metal rises it firstly turns a matte greyish color from being a shiny reflective grey/silver. Then as it approaches 5000C/9300F, just prior to it beginning to turn a faint red color, the protective oxidation coating on it surface which is created when it is produced at the smelter and which protects the metal from atmosheric contamintion, starts to glow a sort of deep violety color which can been seen as a blue color from certain angles of view. It then turns to a blue colour from any angle of view as the temperature increases slightly again. By this point, the metal is beginning to become malluable and has lost over 20% of its solidity or rigidity. It then turns from a faint red to a glowing rich red then into a pink, followed by yellow finally turning white upon the point of melting into a liquid state.
The collapsed section. Picture was taken from very close to where the previous picture was. The size of the people on it shows you how big it was. Fancy being on that as it plummets from over 140foot height. No thanks.
Interesting Andrew X, sad and scary, just terrible what those families went through, and I am sure back then compensation would not be part of their work rights! I just do not like that bridge, and never have, look closely at the pics it is a very ugly bridge. You know when you drive on it, you can feel it swaying and I understand that all bridges do that, they have to or they would collapse, but sometimes I think ââ¬Ëwhat would I do if it collapsed while actually driving on itââ¬â¢, and then I think what the heck are you thinking you silly woman!
Interesting also about the metal, and today a great deal of the steel is imported from china, it is inferior, but many construction companies prefer it because of the cheaper pricing, yet the structural strength has no comparison to good old Aussie steel, so what will happen in years to come with all this construction with inferior product? We will have to wait to find outââ¬Â¦
[size="3"][/size] It depends on the fabricator and the application Karen.
If the metal is used in an application where the metal, irrespective of its inferiority, easily exceeds the 'demand' placed on it, then there is nothing to fear. IOW, if the application or device is 'over-engineered', which seldom occurs on anything which bares some or considerable weight or stress.
The problem lays in fabricating something that bares considerable weight of stressing forces... which is the main reason metals are used. With some exceptions, an appropriate authority designs most of these items, especially those with in which the metal bares A LOT of stressing force/s. Be they an Engineer, Architect or similar. Which means that all materials used are calculated to be the minimal required to effect safe and reliable fabrication and working application. This means that the all metallurgical and structural 'attributes or specifications' for all materials chosen or used in the design MUST BE checked and SPECIFIED in the designs schematics.
Short of a rare error occurring at this stage of 'creation' by the designer, which mainly occurs by human error of sorts, it's 'safe' to commence the fabrication process. It's here that numerous problems can occur more so than the prior. If the fabricator totally adheres to the items designated 'build specifications', then there is little chance of any problems arises outside the scope of their intended use. But if for whatever reason the fabricator doesn't, then it's open slather. This doesn't mean that they will fail, only that they could. Keeping in mind that the stress factor employed in any structural design is TEN TIMES what it actually is under normal and nominal operation and use. That's a universal standard of structural design in most countries.
So if the designer needs to decide WHICH specifications standards to apply for any given material that is NOT specifically stated, like the type or brand of steel used, they WILL chose the weakest available standard that HE/SHE knows is available to the fabricator. Thereby reducing or eliminating the possibility of failure occurring within the scope 'intended' use. Which includes structural stress, harmonic stress, atmospheric stress, and fatigue and aging stress.
So if any of these items are built to exacting design specifications and then fail, it will most likely be due to EXCEEDING any one or MORE of their design specifications rather than the steel being used or the fabricator who builds them.
So what I'm saying Karen is I'd be more worried about WHO is operating or using these items rather than the steel used to make them. Which is the same as if they were made from Sheffield or BHP steel.
It's the profit mongering or greedy owner of them that would concern me most. Which answers a lot of questions regarding the West Gate Bridge including its collapse, bad looks, endless and excessive ââ¬Ëmaintenance and wind induced motionââ¬â¢. Make no mistake, had they spent more money in its conception, all the previously mentioned factors would be reduced, some considerably and others eliminated.
We should never forget that all such things go to the lowest bidder, be they the designers, fabricators and or installers. Thatââ¬â¢s whatââ¬â¢s MOST dangerous.
