On Sunday, a bridge collapse in the western Indian state of Gujarat had led to the death of at least 78 people. Hundreds of people were on the bridge at the time of the collapse, with more than 80 rescued so far. The cause of the collapse is uncertain, but there is some suspicion that the bridge was overloaded. Will be interesting to see what comes from the investigations.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-63445154

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-india-63453828

Toll has risen to 141 and continues to rise.

A pedestrian bridge, then. And an ancient one, apparently

Yes, looks like something out of a Indiana Jones movie, perhaps to many got together in one place.

Googling some images of that bridge...it's ancient and also looks really scary even in good days.

And it was just repaired? Perhaps some shoddy repair job is also responsible.

readytotaxi wrote:

Yes, looks like something out of a Indiana Jones movie, perhaps to many got together in one place.

Dates back to the late 1800's, when engineering was pretty good. It had,however, recently been re-opened after renovation, but had not, apparently been safety certificated.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/co ... 5477ac97af

One does have to wonder who awarded the contract in the first place.

I think the cause is likely to be overloading. It's meant to be a single file pedestrian bridge, but was being used as a viewing platform.

It's happened in the US too, that platforms became overloaded and collapsed when people congregated on them.

Usually there is also another weakening in play, so will be interesting to see if that is the case here. It was just reopened after refurbishment.

Seems the contract was awarded to a company more experienced in making clocks and with no engineering experience whatsoever.

Sounds like corruption...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... -up-claims

It appears that the company Oreva had managed the bridge for many years, and had threatened to do only temporary repairs before opening the bridge, unless the government signed a long-term contract. Which they finally did in March 2022.

At the bridge opening 7 months later, the executives claimed that repairs had been full and final, but that is now open to question.

The preliminary analysis is that the bridge failed at the cable connectors to the deck, and that the failure was aggravated by overloading and rocking the bridge from side to side.

There will need to be an engineering analysis to determine what repairs were done, and if they were sufficient.

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/w ... 58419.html

Avatar2go wrote:

It appears that the company Oreva had managed the bridge for many years, and had threatened to do only temporary repairs before opening the bridge, unless the government signed a long-term contract. Which they finally did in March 2022.

At the bridge opening 7 months later, the executives claimed that repairs had been full and final, but that is now open to question.

The preliminary analysis is that the bridge failed at the cable connectors to the deck, and that the failure was aggravated by overloading and rocking the bridge from side to side.

There will need to be an engineering analysis to determine what repairs were done, and if they were sufficient.

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/w ... 58419.html

I need to give it a bit more nuanced context. First up, the pedestrian bridge is supposed to have only 5 people or something similar about 50x5= 250 kgs. And also there is ticket to that bridge and the ticket price is around INR 20/- per head or more as per news. The occassion being chat puja where basically wives pray that their husbands live longer. It is a tradition seeped in sexism but it is what it is. There is and were also unconfirmed reports that almost 50% of the money i.e. 1 crore was given to BJP. There have been number of cases where it has been found that BJP had taken 40% commission, and in some rare cases like this some more so.

In order to defend, first the Govt. circulated widely a video almost 3 years old that showed people trying to shake the bridge and commenting that 'resonance' made the bridge collapse. From what I remember after the New York bridge collapse that happened in the 1940s inertial dampners have been put in all bridges and there is whole lot of science that goes into making of a bridge. BJP has been mum whether asked about interial dampners if you take that as the truth. The Govt. is supposed to announce the public the closure and the reopening of the bridge by use of loudspeakers. They are also supposed to put up notices of the same on the bridge and around the bridge as well as in newspapers. The Govt. didn't do anything like it.

The whole thing is very similar to the accidental death of Cyrus Mistry, the estranged gentleman who used to lead Tata Sons. Even there, it was found that where the accident happened, the bridge curves and becomes half the width of the rest of the road, you can even see it on Google Maps but again no information given to riders or anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcXrg4DYl4I

It's the same thing unfortunately

Unfortunately, the investigation will be a sham. Till date, there hasn't been any official reports of any railway or highway accident till date. It all gets buried. Even a BJP leader, his whole family around 11-12 people have been victims in this tragedy but the gentleman has preferred to be silent.

https://indianexpress.com/article/citie ... y-8243693/

Meanwhile common people continue to ask questions they know will never be answered

As I shared above, but before going into it, have to share that BJP has been party in power for the last 20 odd years. Now they are claiming that the contract was given to not Oreva company but to the manager and he used unqualified workers.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/health/nutrit ... r-AA13E6sR

'Coincidentally' the Govt. printed 10k electoral bonds each worth INR 1k/- crore each. Most of these 'electoral bonds' have been used by companies based in Gujarat, even some Chinese and Russian companies that GOI refuses to answer or tell anything about -

https://indianexpress.com/article/india ... y-8239657/

Just for reference, last time BJP cornered 96% of the funding. And it has been proved that GOI knows who uses electoral bonds. It was supposed to be anonymous but investigation revealed they know all.

Remember the whole Mori bridge repair and maintenance contract was for 2 crores for 15 years.

I am sure lot of documents have been destroyed and lot more made in order for this new story to be told.

No questions asked how the Govt. let it happened, what was CVC and other regulators doing, all silence on that end.

And some more -

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... 263476.cms

Now one has to ask which is the truth, the one they are harping now or the one before. All the drama is to save the company and thereby save the Government. Also, there is/was supposed to be Gujarat Elections. Now the Election Commissioner is in a fix, he was supposed to announce it this week but now with the tragedy he doesn't know what to do. The BJP doesn't want to claim responsibility and it can't risk oreva talking about the bonds they had given and the commission after which the project was awarded to them.

Last two days lot of revelations coming in thick and fast but mostly in Gujarati newspapers as it is local. It turns out that there was never a tender floated for this work. Also, apparently the owner Jaysukhbhai Patel is the brother of a central minister called Rupala. Also no valuation of the bridge was done when the contract was signed otherwise at a minimum a crore rupees had to be paid to the muncipality. Apparently, the tickets for the bridge was INR 17/- and INR 12/- for adults and kids respectively. Images of tickets have come online of the bridge. Questions being asked about relatives of the BJP leader, Apparently, 12 people of his own family died. And the media is claiming that the dead were responsible for the tragedy showing those 'resonance video' from 4 years old.

Although while searching for the 1940 bridge that collapsed, came to know this, seems it wasn't resonance at all.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswith ... d521bc1f4c

The Govt. has basically issued cheques and think it's over. They are trying to have elections now so they can paper over the whole tragedy

Ironically, the owner Jaysukhbhai Patel has remarked 'it is will of god' few months back when a similar occurrence happened in Kolkata, the PM had blamed corruption. In this case, he has myopia it seems.

Just a speculation on the apparent cause of the collapse, without any data. The claim of resonance, as a comparison to Tacoma Narrows, is an incorrect understanding.

Rather what I have read, from engineers who have reviewed the video, is that the connectors to the bridge deck gave way, allowing the deck to drop away. Contributing factors may have been overloading, as well as people swinging the bridge from side to side. There may have been mechanical or deterioration problems in the connectors as well. That part is uncertain, although the claims that rusted components were painted and not replaced, is very telling. But those mechanisms are not the same as resonance.

For Tacoma Narrows, resonance was still involved, but the driver now is understood to be aerodynamic flutter. Flutter requires the presence of a natural frequency, and resonance, but resonance alone is not the driver or the cause.

Avatar2go wrote:

Just a speculation on the apparent cause of the collapse, without any data. The claim of resonance, as a comparison to Tacoma Narrows, is an incorrect understanding.

Rather what I have read, from engineers who have reviewed the video, is that the connectors to the bridge deck gave way, allowing the deck to drop away. Contributing factors may have been overloading, as well as people swinging the bridge from side to side. There may have been mechanical or deterioration problems in the connectors as well. That part is uncertain, although the claims that rusted components were painted and not replaced, is very telling. But those mechanisms are not the same as resonance.

For Tacoma Narrows, resonance was still involved, but the driver now is understood to be aerodynamic flutter. Flutter requires the presence of a natural frequency, and resonance, but resonance alone is not the driver or the cause.

Partly correct, the swinging video is old. Later CCTV images of the bridge have surfaced, that video is old been shared by BJP IT Cell .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXQDw0XWvoo

This is from the CCTV.

The other things that you have mentioned are indeed correct. Also what has been shared is that the company has been lethargic for the last 3 odd years and blackmailing the authorities to give permanent contract for the bridge as was shared. And many images have come online that show Jaysukhbhai Patel in close contact with entire senior leadership of BJP of not even six months old.

More and more revelations coming, that just showing how rotten the whole thing is. One has to remember that BJP has been in power since the last 27 years in Gujarat.

Unsurprisingly, all 52 members in Morbi Muncipality Authority are from BJP. Hence, to date no FIR against the owner.

There had been two slightly different agreements that have come up in media, one that shows that the work was contracted to Oreva the company, the other one showing a third party.

Everything else in both the stamp paper agreement are the same. The date, the place, the name of the municipal authorities, only the contractor's name was changed.

What is and was sort of funny is that the stamp paper was of INR 300/- on both. Now I don't know much about property except that I had to deal couple of times property agreements, and each time the stamp paper on which the agreements were done were than 1k/- each. or more. How can a government bridge be lower than a 2 BHK flat is beyond me and that too which is outskirts pf the city is beyond me

Here is the video I saw. It shows a person trying to swing the bridge at the moment of failure. Also shows the cables dangling after the deck seperated at the connectors. But also shows some of the cables failing from above as well.

It's difficult to know for sure without an engineering analysis.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dR3QvLZF8Ok

Avatar2go wrote:

Here is the video I saw. It shows a person trying to swing the bridge at the moment of failure. Also shows the cables dangling after the deck seperated at the connectors. But also shows some of the cables failing from above as well.

It's difficult to know for sure without an engineering analysis.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dR3QvLZF8Ok

Yup, apparently depending on whom you quote the number of people who could be on that bridge is anywhere from 15-40, that's the max. Also what is coming into the media is police used to be there to make sure there is no overcrowding and the bridge was thrown open about a week back. So this whole idea that the municipality didn't know is just patently false. Now it is being rumored that the bjp leader who went there, he went there with the whole crowd including 12 relatives who eventually died. Nobody willing to answer if the leader had thrown his weight around or not. Also, no answer whether policemen and women had come on the ill-fated day or not. So many questions, not enough answers sadly.