Thanks Roger!
As the NGDF's resident Civil P.E., I'll quote from the Summary, specifically the third paragraph on page 1:
Quote
HDR
During the field inspection the General Manager Marvin Casias of the Cumbres & Toltec said that the trains coast over the bridge at a speed of 8 mph because the bridge sits in a sag vertical curve. HDR utilized this information and did not include the impact due to the hammer blow of the engine in the rating analysis. Impact due to the rocking effect of the engine, tender and eight (8) viewing cars was included in the load rating analysis.
The "superstructure" are the spans between piers. HDR did a structural analysis of these spans and, even though HDR ignored the dynamic loading from the locomotive drivers
and cars, the spans still failed the analysis.
Quote
HDR
The bridge substructures have not yet been rated. The results of those ratings will be provided at a later date.
The "substructure" are the piers, abutments and foundations. HDR was not contracted to consider those elements, so they know nothing about the condition of those elements.
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Now, two points of commentary:
(1) IMHO, the report does
not provide enough information to obtain funding. I say this because, again IMHO, no responsible organization is going to give the railroad $2 million in order to place brand-new spans on top of 100+ year old piers, 100+ year old abutments and 100+ year old foundations, all of which are in unknown condition.
(2) The report is dated August 19, 2010. There are several necessary steps to go from this report to an open bridge: complete an analysis of the substructure, determine the scope of the replacement project, obtain funding, do the design, obtain approvals, bid the project, and then finally construct the replacement bridge. Considering how long it typically takes to do each task, it seems obvious to me that Lobato will still be closed next season (2011) and probably the following season as well (2012).
[Post edited on 9/3 to correct typo caught by El Nehi in his follow-up post]
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Chris Webster
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2010 04:17PM by Chris Webster.
