Expressway Tunnel Ceiling Falls on Cars

[matsuki]

Ret the fun begin!

I thought that was the Japanese title for Gone with the Wind...if so, wrong thread, mate.

Don't worry, I'm sure this charade will be turned into a love story movie at some point in time.

[Coligny]

Necrophiliac rape zombie gore, we might even be able to tape it on site before they clear the debris. Lucky I know a meat wholeseller down the street, can have some cheap beef for fake human bodyparts...

[matsuki]

Necrophiliac rape zombie gore, we might even be able to tape it on site before they clear the debris. Lucky I know a meat wholeseller down the street, can have some cheap beef for fake human bodyparts...

I think Mythbusters prefers to use dead pigs instead of beef but then again, if we got them over her, they'd have enough material for a million seasons

[Coligny]

yeah, I prefer dead pigs too, remind me of me Julie so it feels less like cheating...

[matsuki]

yeah, I prefer dead pigs too, remind me of me Julie so it feels less like cheating...

Hahahahaha, now I really want to see what she looks like...

[Coligny]

no you don't...

[legion]

THIS is what struck me too...bitch had no clue what happened to people in the same car as her. WTF???

They were probably already dead, crushed.

She survived, they didn't.

[Level3]

Uh, going around a mountain instead of through it can be just as dangerous (if not more).

Random falling rock smashes through your windshield and kills you, landslide from above buries you, landslide from below and the road disappears with you on it, people driving off curves to plunge 100m to their deaths (no escaping from that one), or just some retard chatting on a cell phone while looking at the pretty mountain leaves instead of the road plows into you head-on at a curve. Dead.

I'd wager more people are killed annually in curvy mountain road accidents than in tunnel collapses. Far more.

But anyway, I'm sure some politician will call for immediate closure of all tunnels for safety checks..which if passed they will ignore anyway and then demand all tunnels be replaced by unicorn-powered rainbow bridges by 2030.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

...demand all tunnels be replaced by unicorn-powered rainbow bridges by 2030.

What a magical idea!

[Coligny]

Uh, going around a mountain instead of through it can be just as dangerous (if not more).

Random falling rock smashes through your windshield and kills you, landslide from above buries you, landslide from below and the road disappears with you on it, people driving off curves to plunge 100m to their deaths (no escaping from that one), or just some retard chatting on a cell phone while looking at the pretty mountain leaves instead of the road plows into you head-on at a curve. Dead.

I'd wager more people are killed annually in curvy mountain road accidents than in tunnel collapses. Far more.

But anyway, I'm sure some politician will call for immediate closure of all tunnels for safety checks..which if passed they will ignore anyway and then demand all tunnels be replaced by unicorn-powered rainbow bridges by 2030.

Don't forget collision with wildlife, increased cost of fuel / energy dependency, increased time wasted, increase of transport costs for goods -trucks and mountain twisty roads don't mix-

[matsuki]

You guys are talking extremes....I'm not talking high alpine mountain pass roads with many curves, carousels, and elevations changes. Not places where there are boulders and shit that are likely to fall and the steepness isn't so crazy that I'd even worry about landslides....



This makes sense...

I'm talking about tunnels for highways that encounter hills/small mountains here where a path is easily visible on either side and there are no homes/buildings/rivers/etc. on them. I've seen far too many like this where the road ends up going through the hill instead of around it. Basically, all you need to do is curve the road around the hill to the other side, no extreme angle needed nor is there a 100mm drop. (actually, if they had planned correctly, they road wouldn't be aiming for the hill in the first place)

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I'm talking about tunnels for highways...

Holy shit! I thought you'd been talking about the comedy duo....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_%28owarai%29

[matsuki]

I'm talking about tunnels for highways...

Holy shit! I thought you'd been talking about the comedy duo....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_%28owarai%29

Nope but those certainly are ridiculously unnecessary tunnels just the same...

Tunnels in character and in drag depicting a group of women they found scouting for talent in Las Vegas, Nevada. The group is on the Avex label.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Nope but those certainly are ridiculously unnecessary tunnels just the same...

No, no, no...they're not ridiculous: they're a tremendous example of Japanese racial sensitivity (usually prefixed with "in").

[matsuki]

Nope but those certainly are ridiculously unnecessary tunnels just the same...

No, no, no...they're not ridiculous: they're a tremendous example of Japanese racial sensitivity (usually prefixed with "in").

That bad huh? I didn't bother looking for videos..

[Level3]

You guys are talking extremes....I'm not talking high alpine mountain pass roads with many curves, carousels, and elevations changes. Not places where there are boulders and shit that are likely to fall and the steepness isn't so crazy that I'd even worry about landslides...

no extreme angle needed nor is there a 100mm drop...

..if they had planned correctly, they road wouldn't be aiming for the hill in the first place

OK, I see what you're getting at. Though I imagine some of those cases aren't really as simple as they seem. Perhaps going around the mountain would end up being more expensive or dangerous. Just blasting through and making a mini-valley could end up being a major falling rock hazard? Shoring up the base of the new detoured road (all the way down to the base of the mountain?) may be more expensive than bracing a simple tunnel?

Though I am a cynic, so I bet there's nothing to stop some contractors from creating "studies" to "prove" the 30m long tunnel is cheaper and safer than any alternative. Though I am not cynical enough to think the designers are stupid enough to just start building a road without planning and suddenly notice a mountain in the way...

hmmm.... well... they are civil engineers, so it's possible.

[wagyl]

A lot of the excessive micro tunnels Choko is refering to result from more than just porkbarrelling. Compulsory purchase of land to build the road around the obstacle can become such a pain in the butt that punching a hole through more easily acquired land becomes the simpler option. For similar reasons, parts of the new Shutoko ring were put underground when the claims for loss of sunlight and general impairment of community amenity from the proposed elevated road threatened to make that choice uneconomic.

On the other hand, the landscape here does make some tunneling unavoidable.

Oyashirazu_tenkendangai.jpg

Oyashirazu, where the Japan Alps meet the Japan Sea.
The next pass across the Northern Alps is 200 Km to the south, so before the Meiji era tunnel it was a matter of wading along the ledge at the base of the 80 metre cliffs when the weather behaved. [Factual edit: there is a now unused Meiji era railway tunnel and a Meiji era road cut into the wall of the cliff, too narrow and with corners of too tight radius for any volume of traffic and now a walking track]

Completely irrelevant anecdote: my friend fell 120 metres down a cliff when his motorbike became unstable on one of the pass roads near here. The motorbike got stuck in a tree with the engine still going and light still on so that alerted another road user that something was wrong. This was 13 years ago and he is still a friend in the present tense. He still rides the same flipping bike. Evidently those cliffs aren't as lethal as everyone here is making out or he was extremely lucky, as he has been in all the other of his crazy accidents.

[legion]

The alternative to tunnels

https://vimeo.com/17458725#at=0

When you don't go straight in Japan you go very very windy and it takes a long time to get anywhere. I like these roads, when I have a day off work and don't have to hurry anywhere with anyone.

I ride slowly because I generally go on my own and I go high up in the mountains, if you come off you are fucked.

[Coligny]

awesome video...

[TennoChinko]

I might be wrong, but it seems to me that in Japan, during emergencies, there are very few cases of people risking their lives and trying to help others, especially strangers.
I remember that it took me a long time to find such cases covering the Tohoku disaster compared with other similar incidents in other countries.
But then again, it is just a feeling not based on hard data.

Diagrams and accounts of how cars were crushed by heavy concrete ceiling tiles make it easier to understand how cases like the woman not knowing the circumstances of her traveling companions might occur.

As for heroic acts, they happen here and elsewhere - no different from unheroic acts like this recent one in NYC:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... k-Han.html

'There was no way I could have saved him': Photographer claims he was too far away to pull 'doomed' subway rider off train tracks
* Suspect Naeem Davis, 30, charged with murder after admitting to pushing 58-year-old Ki Suk Han onto subway tracks at 49th Street in Manhattan
* Han, a father of one, killed by oncoming Q train as he tried to pull himself up from tracks
* More than a minute - and possibly as long as 90 seconds - passed before the train pinned Mr Han between the well and train, a police source said
* New York Post freelance photographer took pictures of grisly moments before Han was fatally struck
Paper has been blasted for poor taste in publishing Han's last moments

[Mike Oxlong]

Sasago Tunnel Accident: "No Corrosion of Bolts, Only Some Rust, Ceiling Intact", Says Yomiuri, But NHK Says "Some Bolts Corroded, Cracked"

Information on the accident is dribbling out via the media, not directly through the tunnel operator NEXCO Central, whose website has zero information on the accident other than their "Sorry for the accident victims" message, or the ministry in charge (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) which set up an investigation committee made up of scholars and university professors...

[matsuki]

You guys are talking extremes....I'm not talking high alpine mountain pass roads with many curves, carousels, and elevations changes. Not places where there are boulders and shit that are likely to fall and the steepness isn't so crazy that I'd even worry about landslides...

no extreme angle needed nor is there a 100mm drop...

..if they had planned correctly, they road wouldn't be aiming for the hill in the first place

OK, I see what you're getting at. Though I imagine some of those cases aren't really as simple as they seem. Perhaps going around the mountain would end up being more expensive or dangerous. Just blasting through and making a mini-valley could end up being a major falling rock hazard? Shoring up the base of the new detoured road (all the way down to the base of the mountain?) may be more expensive than bracing a simple tunnel?

Once again, I'm not talking about any elevation changes. Imagine driving a long distance on a relatively straight highway, it's mostly flat around you, then you come to a lone hill or a few hills bunched together. No blasting or shoring unnecessary. You simply go around the hill or in between the hills.

A lot of the excessive micro tunnels Choko is refering to result from more than just porkbarrelling. Compulsory purchase of land to build the road around the obstacle can become such a pain in the butt that punching a hole through more easily acquired land becomes the simpler option. For similar reasons, parts of the new Shutoko ring were put underground when the claims for loss of sunlight and general impairment of community amenity from the proposed elevated road threatened to make that choice uneconomic.

With all the street lights/power poles literally in the street here, I have to agree. There is no concept of imminent domain here? What happened to the wa and cooperation for the better of the group?

On the other hand, the landscape here does make some tunneling unavoidable.

Oyashirazu_tenkendangai.jpg

Oyashirazu, where the Japan Alps meet the Japan Sea.

Haha, that looks fun!

[matsuki]

Does the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism have the minutes of the expert committee meeting on December 4? Yes it does, sort of. The ministry's website has a "minute summary" that consists of seven short sentences. As to the accident, it has this to say:

２）事故の経緯
・事故の発生メカニズムについての議論がなされた

2) How the accident happened
- There was a discussion of how the accident happened.


You would think the government and the government experts have learned the lesson from the Fukushima accident - that information needs to be promptly and fully disclosed. So we have no choice but rely on the media, and muddle through.

Life is completely back to normal in Japan.

hahahahaha

[Samurai_Jerk]

Does the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism have the minutes of the expert committee meeting on December 4? Yes it does, sort of. The ministry's website has a "minute summary" that consists of seven short sentences. As to the accident, it has this to say:

２）事故の経緯
・事故の発生メカニズムについての議論がなされた

2) How the accident happened
- There was a discussion of how the accident happened.


You would think the government and the government experts have learned the lesson from the Fukushima accident - that information needs to be promptly and fully disclosed. So we have no choice but rely on the media, and muddle through.

Life is completely back to normal in Japan.

hahahahaha

I wish I could take minutes like that when I'm in a meeting. That would make life a lot easier.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

It is written in keigo...

[Mike Oxlong]

Sasago Tunnel: Ceiling Panels Were Welded Together

9 people died and 2 people suffered injuries in the collapse of [ceiling panels in] Sasago Tunnel on Chuo Expressway in Yamanashi Prefecture. It was revealed on December 5 that the ceiling panels that fell were welded together using rebar.

The collapsed section is 130 meters long, and Central Nippon Expressway Company is admitting the possibility that the connected ceiling panels contributed to the collapse. The prefectural police will conduct the investigation by taking with the experts who accompanied the inspection of the scene of the accident and analyzing the documents seized.

According to Central Nippon Expressway, the 5m x 1.2m x 8.9 centimeter ceiling panels are made of concrete, weighing about 1.2 tonne each. There is a small gap in between the ceiling panels, but the gap was filled with metal [rebar] and welded.

Central Nippon Expressway says, "We still don't know how it actually collapsed, but we cannot deny the possibility that one segment fell, taking the other segments with it."

Ex-Files


Tunnel deemed sound 2 days before collapse

An affiliated company of Central Nippon Expressway Co., operator of the Chuo Expressway, performed a routine check of the ceiling panels of the Sasago Tunnel in Yamanashi Prefecture and reported all was well on Nov. 30, two days before a ceiling collapse killed nine people.

According to the Hachioji branch of NEXCO-Central, its affiliate Central Nippon Highway Engineering Tokyo Co. in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, sent an employee responsible for engineering from its branch office in Otsuki to conduct a visual check of its interior from the passenger seat of a vehicle traveling through the tunnel, which is considered a routine check.

The employee reportedly checked if any light bulbs were burned out or any ceiling panels were not aligned. The check is carried out about 10 times a month, and the report that no problems were detected was given to NEXCO-Central's Otsuki maintenance center later on the day.

Investigating the incident as a possible case of professional negligence resulting in death, Yamanashi prefectural police on Tuesday searched the affiliated company's headquarters and Otsuki office, as well as NEXCO-Central's Otsuki maintenance center, and seized internal documents and other items.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T121206004712.htm

[dimwit]

I don't know whether the welded rebar lead to the collapse but it almost certainly lead to the cascading failure of the panels. If there was to be a bad engineering design awards they give out like the ig-nobles, this would be a candidate in at least three catergories.

1) lack of secondary safety systems
2) inaccessability for maintainance/inspection
3) maximizing damage caused by a failure

[Coligny]

You forgot :

Use of the wrong material

Ther was 0 reason to use concrete plates for an air duct...

[yanpa]

At the time of construction, Japan's primary tetrapod production facility was out of action and they urgently needed somewhere to use the vast amounts of concrete which bubble up naturally from deep beneath the ground before it spilled over the country like a grey flow of lava.

[Yokohammer]

At the time of construction, Japan's primary tetrapod production facility was out of action and they urgently needed somewhere to use the vast amounts of concrete which bubble up naturally from deep beneath the ground before it spilled over the country like a grey flow of lava.

Look around ... I don't think they stopped it in time.