[PGA]

Years ago our drill Sargeant gave us an instruction to break step while crossing a bridge. And its followed meticulously by militaries across the world, while marching over a suspension bridge the resonance can cause huge increase in amplitude resulting in damage to the bridge. This is very much a possibility and have seen it happening.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by PGA

Years ago our drill Sargeant gave us an instruction to break step while crossing a bridge. And its followed meticulously by militaries across the world, while marching over a suspension bridge the resonance can cause huge increase in amplitude resulting in damage to the bridge. This is very much a possibility and have seen it happening.

This is definitely something that happens.

But as we can see in the video of the actual collapse. There was no one doing anything in synchronous manner.

Originally Posted by bblost

Its a collapse without any warning.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=-4ENgbbFKSs

This is such a horrible video. Feel very bad for this completely avoidable loss of life.

[deetee]

Originally Posted by bblost

But as we can see in the video of the actual collapse. There was no one doing anything in synchronous manner.

Apparently , there exists a subspecies amongst us whose evolution is incomplete. Got to keep them at bay or stay away from them when they can get excited.

[Amrik Singh]

4 Persons have been arrested. Including Managers and Ticket Booth employees. Had to find some scapegoats.
Since it was originally built by British, I feel a fact finding committee should be sent there.

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Purposely not sharing images of the current situation but a look at the condition of the bridge in it's earlier condition does not give a lot of confidence at all. I would be really cautious to even tread on this bridge when alone; leave aside when there are some 150 folks using it along with me. Plus the water looks deep and the river is extremely wide.

From the TripAdvisor review, “Fabulous place to visit in Morbi
During my Morbi Visit I got chance to visit most famous place Jhulto Jhulo in CIty. One of the best place I have visited in recent times. Jhula is suspended over River and literally swings once someone pass over.Incredible experience.”



I don’t get it. How is this a tourist attraction?

From the new IKEA in town to a reopened bridge. Everything is a tourist attraction now.

100+ people on that bridge at the same time is surely asking for trouble.

[ramzsys]

The grandfather generation and back, kept making kids a dozen. Without vaccination & medical help, only less than half of them survived. We kept doing what we were doing even with improved healthcare over the decades, so the population exploded.

Infrastructure that was built for a limited population density obviously wouldn't/couldn't handle this logarithmic scaling of demand.

The 'monkey see, monkey do' behavior in us would want to be a part of every happening; it would be better to rein in that instinct and avoid crowded places.

image source: statista.com

[fhdowntheline]

Yesterday, Times Now anchor prefaced the discussion on this incident with damning statistics. In a nutshell, we are shocked about a number of people dying suddenly. But no one cares about daily deaths due to the pathetic infrastructure that surrounds us, whether its potholes, poorly designed roads, bridges, even dams (apparently 9 dams have collapsed between 2015-2020). India may be the 4th or 5th largest country by GDP, but the cost of a human life is apparently between 12Rs to 17Rs.

[VKumar]

Since I am directly and indirectly involved with the infra sector, I would like to add my 2 cents to this discussion:

The bridge was really old, just went through renovation and crashed

• One last straw is enough to break the camel's back
• There was a sudden rise in the number of visitors when the bridge was renovated - while it was actually supposed to be refurbished!

People were doing mischief on the bridge?
Personally called a friend who is a contractor with setu nigam (Bridge Corporation), he said that suspension bridge cables are supposed to have a safety factor of 3.0 minimum and that is way beyond what we have seen in videos. This is a case of improper job done, which resulted in catastrophe.

Bridge was yet to be inspected by authorities for safety ceritification:
What to say? some men got their palms greased and murdered 150 mango people. Now they are free to blame ticket guy and managers, but in reality the authorities will come to seize even your house for makinf 2 sf feet extra verandah - here they didn't knew of an entire bridge being operational.

In this case, the municipal officials all the way till commissioner, CO of that area, SP and DM are supposed to be held accountable with cases to be registered under section 304. Why so? Because even if one of the above mentioned men had done his duty sincerely, this incident wouldn't have happened at all.

[extreme_torque]

Given the loss of life, one would assume atleast now the hospital and authorities would be prioritising tending to the victim and their families but apparently they are preparing the hospital for an impending VIP visit.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/guja...ndtv_topscroll

I am sure the media channels will only show those parts of the hospital to create an image, carefully choreographed so as to put that in the subconscious.

[Piyush_DT]

I think it is much more than what we see. It is our tendency and normal attitude of breaking the law. The worrisome sign is that educated are the majority who are breaking the law. Nobody is scared or worried of the consequences. Right from breaking a traffic signal to opening a bridge without proper checks and certification. We have time and again seen fire engulfed buildings in coaching classes and hospitals and people getting killed due to potholes and incorrect road design.

Still nothing changes on the ground and you start thinking why is that? Because there is no fear and no immediate consequences. We have all the laws, rules and procedure in place then why law is not catching up to instill that fear and deliver. The reason is we have more people to manage that's where we are failing.

Population one of the reason I think is root cause for majority of issues which India is facing. Along with habbit of not following the law.

[Amrik Singh]

Originally Posted by VKumar

In this case, the municipal officials all the way till commissioner, CO of that area, SP and DM are supposed to be held accountable with cases to be registered under section 304. Why so? Because even if one of the above mentioned men had done his duty sincerely, this incident wouldn't have happened at all.

I have faith in Judiciary.
Some Senior Government Employees involved will be suspended. The case will linger on for a decade and all suspended guys will be exonerated and declared 'Not Guilty, They will be reinstated with all Pay and Perks. Reinstated on papers only as most of them would have crossed the Retirement.
The top brass of Oreva or others will not be harmed. It is not a tragedy like Uphaar Cinema where number of victims were from affluent families that pursued the case.
Here most of the victims are from poor families. They will be satisfied with 2-5 Lakh compensation and an offer of Govt. Job to a member of family.
This my prediction. Oh Judiciary ! Do not let me down

[love_travelling]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

At least one sane visitor saw what's happening and returned home with his family. On the overloading part - the numbers quoted by him tells the story. Also, as Amrik quoted, FIR is filed as per below sections.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other...1310fd7e17bc0e

This link quotes Tacoma Narrows bridge:

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

- Every bridge has its resonant frequency and Design Engineers attempt to dampen this frequency. The Tacoma Narrows disaster happened because the designers were unaware at that time.

This is the same reason why when a column of troops cross a bridge they break cadence to prevent any resonant frequency building.

What these guys in Morbi did was to sway the bridge, hitting its resonant frequency and amplifying it till the bridge failed... I would really blame the guys on the bridge.

[saikarthik]

After this horrible incident, people (I guess very few) are waking up and being reactive. As per the news, Atal bridge which was recently opened for visitors will have a cap of 3000 entries per hour. It's good that we are getting to see some people being precautionary, but assuming by the past, this will slowly fade away in time. We need to really enforce the processes, checks that are already in place.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-in/lifestyle/...7343af8c063512

[Porsche306]

The primary reason for failure of bridge is certainly a combination of the resonance effect, overloading and defects in renovation.

May be the bridge was not designed to carry so many people and it could have been overloaded. Overloading can also be caused by resonance effect.

What could have caused resonance effect?

About 500 people on the bridge at a time. Anything is possible. Synchronous walking or movement of people. It could also be that over-enthusiastic, ignorant visitors wanting to experience the 'Jhula' effect.

Every structure built has a purpose and it is designed accordingly. The bridge was not designed to be a 'Jhula'. It was meant for pedestrians crossing the river. If the bridge's purpose was changed to make it into a tourist attraction, was the bridge strengthened for this during renovation? I doubt it. We know what the revenue hungry Municipal Authorities are capable of. Now, who is to be blamed for turning this bridge into a revenue generating tourist attraction?

Even if the Contractor had done a substandard work (although the contractor is liable), ultimately, it is the responsibility of the Authority who owns the structure to check the work and the structure's fitness before allowing people to use the bridge.

Prima facie, the blame lies entirely on the Authorities for allowing the bridge to be used for purpose other than the intended purpose or for their negligence in supervising contractor's work.

Every mistake, accident or failure is an opportunity to prevent such incidents repeating in the future. Now that the incident has happened, it is very very important for everybody to know causes of the failure. Responsible and rational people will work towards this.

As the music has started for the Authorities, the blaming also will start if not started already. I will not be surprised if nothing comes out of this incident. Because, the root cause for the incident will point to an elected Chairman or a Corporator.

[Gildarts]

Well the bridge was being managed and tickets issued by the same OREVA group after renovation. They should have exercised caution in crowd control, knowing the design limitations. Also, It is hard to belive the local authorities which deny any accountability did not come to know about the bridge being open to the public, since it was drawing so much crowd during the festival weekend.
So, the idiots who were recorded swaying the bridge for fun can be scapegoated since they are likely dead already and arrest a couple of low level managers in the OREVA group and close the case.