Expressway Tunnel Ceiling Falls on Cars

[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.

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

At least they tried their best. I heard that at one point during the 1970s they had to resort to handing out a free concrete block each day to all salaried workers in order to at least distribute the surplus over the entire country.

[Mike Oxlong]

I don't know what the big deal about Gunkanjima is. Okinawa is much bigger and looks just the same.

[Russell]

You forgot :

Use of the wrong material

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

There was probably a supervisor who advised against using asbestos.

So, then they decided to go for... concrete!

Shouldn't that give us all a warm safety feeling?

[Coligny]

You forgot :

Use of the wrong material

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

There was probably a supervisor who advised against using asbestos.

So, then they decided to go for... concrete!

Shouldn't that give us all a warm safety feeling?

There is 0 need to use asbestos to protect a venting duct. You use plaster or asbestos only to protect structural stuff...

If there is a fire that melt some steel duct... shoganai...

[Russell]

You forgot :

Use of the wrong material

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

There was probably a supervisor who advised against using asbestos.

So, then they decided to go for... concrete!

Shouldn't that give us all a warm safety feeling?

There is 0 need to use asbestos to protect a venting duct. You use plaster or asbestos only to protect structural stuff...

If there is a fire that melt some steel duct... shoganai...

Yep, and that is why he advised against asbestos.

And that is why they used concrete.

OK, the irony probably got lost in my comment. My point was that they apparently have such a closed mindset that they do not consider other options than asbestos and concrete for some reason (like: it is in the manual).

Sorry to confuse you.

[Coligny]

D00d... with high grade morons like these... the difference between irony and what really happen is usually soooo slim that it's better to avoid it already...

It's a country where "not doing preparation to avoid people thinking that something bad might happen" is a real excuse used for fukushima...

In a normal country that would be a bad taste satire... or a proof of criminal intents... but not something you can say while hoping to keep your job

[legion]

awesome video...

thank you, I film them for my old age when I am too old to ride

[Mike Oxlong]

Japan tunnel disaster a wake-up call for other countries

A deadly tunnel collapse in Japan should serve as a wake-up call to developed nations whose aging infrastructure is in dire need of updating, experts say.

Trillions of dollars need to be spent across the globe just to stand still they warn, adding current fiscal belt tightening is pushing vital repairs dangerously far down the list.

“Maintenance work is often neglected because you cannot easily see the urgent need for it,” said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute.

Nine people were killed when concrete ceiling panels crashed onto three vehicles, setting at least one ablaze inside the Sasago tunnel, 80 kilometers west of Tokyo on Dec 2.

The exact cause of the cave-in is not yet known, but an initial probe has pointed to decay in the fixtures that held the more than one-ton panels to the roof of the 35-year-old tunnel.

The government ordered immediate inspections of all structures with the same design and Japanese police began a criminal investigation, with an eye to bringing negligence charges.

The incident sent jitters through Japan, one of the most engineered countries in the world, which saw a huge infrastructure boom in the decades after World War II.

At least eight percent of the 155,000 major bridges in Japan are already older than 50 years, the infrastructure ministry said. By 2030, more than half of them will be.

The ministry estimates it needs to spend 190 trillion yen over the next five decades just to maintain the infrastructure it already has.

But with debts more than double its GDP, which Japan’s shrinking workforce cannot easily repay, finding new cash is a tough ask.

The tunnel collapse was not the first time a lack of investment has caused problems.

In the U.S. city of Minneapolis, an eight-lane, 33-meter (108-foot)-high bridge collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

Dilapidated power lines were among the major causes of Australia’s 2009 Black Saturday wildfires that killed 173 people.

In 2006, a huge summertime blackout in New York was blamed on a badly maintained grid.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $2.2 trillion is needed over the next decade simply to prevent resources such as bridges, roads, waterways and power cables from deteriorating.

But under current plans, the U.S. government will spend less than half that amount and, with Washington lawmakers seeking to avoid the looming “fiscal cliff,” the federal investment budget could be cut further.

Engineers Australia, an infrastructure lobby group, estimates that years of neglect have left the vast and sparsely populated country with a A$700 billion ($732 billion) investment shortfall.

Rod Eddington, chairman of Infrastructure Australia, has warned that even though upgrades are expensive, the status quo is not an option.

“The results of not doing enough are traffic congestion, poor access to our export gateways, missed economic opportunities and lower quality of life,” Eddington said in a report in June.

London’s transport plans for this year’s Olympic Games were thrown into disarray when one of the main arteries linking Heathrow Airport and the capital had to be closed in December 2011 for emergency repairs.

Cables holding together the concrete Hammersmith Flyover, built in the 1960s, had been weakened by a steady seepage of salt water, a problem that needed five months of traffic-disrupting work to fix.

Civil structural engineer Aleksandar Pavic said with only periodic inspections, Britain gets taken by surprise when its infrastructure—some of which dates to the 19th century—suddenly fails.

“We don’t know what our structures are doing,” said Pavic, professor of vibration engineering at the University of Sheffield.

“We don’t understand what is actually happening on them, that’s why things are falling apart, quite unexpectedly,” he said, adding modern monitoring systems could give a much better picture.

Dai-ichi Life economist Nagahama said strong political will is necessary if sufficient money is ever going to be put aside for much needed updates and maintenance.

“The recent tunnel accident may be the trigger that improves public awareness about the issue and presses authorities” to do something, he said.

[yanpa]

The tunnel collapse was not the first time a lack of investment has caused problems.

In the U.S. city of Minneapolis, an eight-lane, 33-meter (108-foot)-high bridge collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

What, you mean infrastructure failure due to underinvestment/neglect is not a purely Japanese phenomenon?!

[Mike Oxlong]

Civil structural engineer Aleksandar Pavic said with only periodic inspections, Britain gets taken by surprise when its infrastructure—some of which dates to the 19th century—suddenly fails.

“We don’t know what our structures are doing,” said Pavic, professor of vibration engineering at the University of Sheffield.

“We don’t understand what is actually happening on them, that’s why things are falling apart, quite unexpectedly,” he said, adding modern monitoring systems could give a much better picture.

Damn, that guy's title must work great with the ladies!

[matsuki]

with debts more than double its GDP, which Japan’s shrinking workforce cannot easily repay, finding new cash is a tough ask.

...raid the government worker hostess bar fund?

How can people still think Japan/Yen investment is a good idea?

[Coligny]

The tunnel collapse was not the first time a lack of investment has caused problems.

In the U.S. city of Minneapolis, an eight-lane, 33-meter (108-foot)-high bridge collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

What, you mean infrastructure failure due to underinvestment/neglect is not a purely Japanese phenomenon?!

Did we speak aboot Boston's big dig already ?

[wuchan]

LOL

Within a year of opening a ceiling panel fell and killed some spanish chick from eastie. Modern Continental claimed that the workers used the "wrong glue". Everyone living in the city was like "WTF GLUE???????"

Tunnels were all closed until the panels were bolted in. They reopened about four months later.






Shortly after the U.S. government began to ask questions about where the money went. MC couldn't account for about seven billion, a number that kept increasing.



Don't really remember what happened in the end. I think some people went to jail.

[matsuki]

LOL, why is this type of shit (and the costs) not scrutinized in a reasonable manner BEFORE shit gets built?

[legion]

A simple calculation of the number of cars using the Chuo daily multiplied by an estimate of the average toll says someone is raking in 100s of millions of yen every week.

Where is it going?

[Coligny]

LOL

Within a year of opening a ceiling panel fell and killed some spanish chick from eastie. Modern Continental claimed that the workers used the "wrong glue". Everyone living in the city was like "WTF GLUE???????"

Tunnels were all closed until the panels were bolted in. They reopened about four months later.
.

You'd be amazed by what epoxy can do (including holding together the chassis of the Audi A8 and R8, because welding steel to aluminum is still, just not possible on this planet, or anyother...)

The trouble came from using the wrong epoxy because it was cheaper, the one used was designed for short heavy stress like vibration or quakes but not for long term structural stress or load bearing... it was a noisy trial because The maker of the epoxy clearly labelled the spec of the glue used, warning against such kind of possible failure if used for load bearing. Despite this had to pay for the accident. raising quite a stink for other industries where customers are nototrious cheap ass idiots...

[matsuki]

A simple calculation of the number of cars using the Chuo daily multiplied by an estimate of the average toll says someone is raking in 100s of millions of yen every week.

Where is it going?

I'll tell you where it's not going....

[Taro Toporific]

Twitter-_-DailyGomiuri.png

twitter.com/DailyGomiuri

[matsuki]

LOL, or "reinforcement of tunnels has begun, using waste materials from Fukushima"

[Mike Oxlong]

Defects found at 670 points in Sasago tunnel

Officials of Central Nippon Expressway Co (NEXCO), which operates the Sasago tunnel in Yamanashi Prefecture, where a fatal cave-in occurred on Dec 2, said Thursday that an emergency inspection of the tunnel’s outbound lane revealed defects in 670 locations.

After the accident in the inbound lane—in which nine people died—the government ordered NEXCO to inspect the Sasago and other tunnels, especially ceiling panels.

A NEXCO spokesman told a news conference that the bolts which fix the ceiling panels to the nearly 5-kilometer-long tunnel were loose or corroded in about 632 places, TV Asahi reported. In other parts of the tunnel, the concrete top of the tunnel was cracked. In all, the company said it had detected problems in 670 spots.

The spokesman declined to provide more details, saying the company was under police investigation.

Footage from inside the Sasago tunnel after the collapse showed concrete panels had collapsed in a V-shape, possibly indicating some kind of weakness in the central supporting pillars suspended from the roof.

NEXCO said its inspections consisted largely of visual surveys, with workers looking for cracks and other abnormalities, or listening to the acoustics of the concrete and metal parts by hitting them with hammers.

Officials admitted last week that during the five-yearly check of the ceiling in September there had been no acoustic survey of the metal parts on which the panels weighing up to 1.5 tons rest.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I betcha they missed the Mickey Mouse Glove Pointing Inspection.

Either that, or the Measure to the Side of the Road Inspection.

I must admit, these are usually the domain of the railways or police, respectively, but I think they can be applied in various aspects of Japanese society. Maybe they just got them mixed up and they measured where they should have pointed, or vice versa?
Whatever, the upshot is that foreigners must have been to blame somehow because superior Japanese engineering and construction practices could never have led to faults such as these. Or, a freak of nature caused by having four distinct seasons.

[yanpa]

I betcha they missed the Mickey Mouse Glove Pointing Inspection.

I will store that one for future use if you don't mind

[Coligny]

Be careful, the future tend to come really early in this shithole...

[matsuki]

emergency inspection of the tunnel’s outbound lane revealed defects in 670 locations.

Safety cuntry indeed...is NEXCO a publicly listed company or is the gov. the one shafting people here?

Officials admitted last week that during the five-yearly check of the ceiling in September there had been no acoustic survey of the metal parts on which the panels weighing up to 1.5 tons rest.

So they didn't bang the supporting structure with hammers...like that made a difference when they supposedly did it before and said everything was safe

[Takechanpoo]

an unidentified tunnel is found under tokyo staion

K10010159251_1507191939_1507191941_01_03.jpg

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/2015071 ... 51000.html

[matsuki]

So...it's too new to be listed on the meiji era maps they're still using?