Squinty Bridge Closed

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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby AzimScot » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:02 pm

any news on the bridge? been 2 weeks now.
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Delmont St Xavier » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:07 pm

Aye and it will be another 5 and 1/2 months before it is finished! It's been in the news and its a bloody pest being closed, it was a really handy crossing.
"Listen, it's too big a world to be in competition with everyone. The only person who I have to be better than is myself. And in your case, that's enough."
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Buzby » Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:23 pm

It was only when I walked across it (before the closure) did I realise the bridge is located within yards of the old Finneston (Vehicular) ferry - that amazing boat with the deck that could be wound up and down so that the cars would be at the same level as the bank, irrespective of the state of the tide on the river. Talk about inginuity. Anyway, my point being once this service stopped and the nearby pedestrian tunnel (at the Rotunda) closed, there was no other crossing unless you went via GVB - so the fact it's taken them nearly 40 years to put in a (short lived?) replacement, proves the need!
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Targer » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:24 pm

The wheels of progress do grind slowly but particularly when overseen by The George Square Mob (aka GCC). While cars have had time and distance added to their travel don't forget the poor pedestrian who without bridge or ferry has even more added to a cross river travel.
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:35 pm

Targer wrote:The wheels of progress do grind slowly but particularly when overseen by The George Square Mob (aka GCC). While cars have had time and distance added to their travel don't forget the poor pedestrian who without bridge or ferry has even more added to a cross river travel.


Like a 5 minute walk to Bell's Bridge.

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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Mori » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:55 pm

Evening Times

Work starts on giant support frame for the Squinty Bridge

VITAL repair work at the troubled Squinty Bridge has taken a major step forward.
Work has started on a giant steel frame which is being put in place to support the weight of the road which will allow the strut repairs to be carried out.
Cranes and barges and specialist equipment have been moved to the £20million Clyde Arc which was closed in January after a four-ton cable crashed on to the road after a steel ring connecting the cable to the bridge arch snapped.
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby cell » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:13 pm

Has any one got the true story on what happened here? I presume the council know otherwise they shouldn't let the repairs go ahead. I don't mean the evening times "a steel ring connecting the cable to the bridge arch snapped" pish but a proper engineering explanation, I see mention of them changing out the cable connections from "cast" to "milled" not sure this would make much of difference, sounds like the original ones were defective, any other ideas?
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:19 am

E mail an engineering site.
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby cell » Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:35 pm

I was hoping for some "inside" definitive council info, because they must have been told the actual reason, all you get on the engineering sites is lots of speculation. I suppose if it is a design or material supply issue there is going to be lots of money involved so people are going to be tight lipped. I should add I've no commercial interest in this, just engineering curiosity. I think its always good to know where the blame really lies in cases like this when council tax payers are suffering a loss of service, it could have been a lot worse, for example if it was the designers fault for not specifying the components correctly would you want to see them getting some of the commonwealth games jobs?
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Targer » Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:51 pm

I doubt we will get the exact explanation/information regarding this failure since it is sensitive info. to a number of areas involved i.e. the bridge builder and of course GCC. I'm not impressed with the engineering involved with this bridge construction. It would have been prudent and proper exercise of due diligence to have installed load cells (which can be read remotely) on the attachment fixture and the cable or rod prior to allowing traffic on the bridge. It may have prevented most of the problem and allowed a quicker repair etc.
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Luco » Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:00 pm

could they no' have built a normal bridge! since we cannot rely on them to build one like this.
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby Targer » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:28 pm

This bridge is a lot like one of the new bridges in Newcastle. Everyone must have noticed the similarity?
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby dave2 » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:03 pm

Yeah, but the Newcastle bridge's 'road' way for cyclists and pedestrians is an arc (ie it is higher above the water at the centre than at the sides) as well as being a curved bridge in that the centre is further downriver than the two ends. Thus the suspension bars for the walkway run at an angle from the upper supporting arc to the bridge deck.

These factors made the design not suitable for the Glasgow bridge, although the method of suspension remains teh same, although the weights of the roadway is much higher.
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby engineer » Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:02 am

i dont think load cells could have prevented this, unless the bridge experienced loading which it wasn't designed to take. as i understand it, it has failed under normal operation
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Re: Squinty Bridge Closed

Postby retired tiger » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:36 am

My opinion as a one time engine fitter, ships engineer, offshore mechy tech, is that somebody got their sums badly wrong.
One attachment failure could be a material flaw, but two points to a design fault, possibly not factoring in enough of a safety margin, sometimes called a safety factor. If memory serves, if your lifting an object weighing 1 ton, and your using lifting equipment rated to 1 ton, the equipment might have been tested to 1.5 tons or more to give a safety factor.

It could be something simple like getting the decimal point in the wrong place in the calculations. :?
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