Monday, July 19, 2010

Triangle Failure Makes Me Go Hmmm...


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This is the part of the Grandview Triangle that failed over the weekend. From this Google shot, you can see the retaining wall that gave way north east of the road way. This shot intrigues me because it sort of looks like something is already going on with this section of roadway. Doesn't the area of pavement just ahead of the dump truck in the picture look a little off? And look at the retaining wall--doesn't something look a little fishy there too, especially near the wall itself? If this can be proven to be related to something more than the weather, look out. It would be interesting to find out when this was taken.

My guest is that it will be attributed solely to the weather, and us common folk will only have our suspicious thoughts. Meantime, MDOT is saying Fall before it is fixed.


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A more distant view of this spaghetti-fest intersection of I-435, I-470 and US 71. The failure is in the ramp from I-470 W to I-435 W. It also affects people coming up from the south who wish to travel west.

This link to KSHB has some nice photos on it, as well as more details about the situation.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not seeing anything but you're the engineer...

Brent said...

I see what you're saying about the road -- missing the wall thing.

A friend of mine who drives through that area a lot commented months ago that something wasn't right with it because there were some obvious signs of settling on that section of road -- and apparently another section that seems to be in similar shape on the other side of that ramp.

Anonymous said...

The new Google Maps satellite images were taken in early May.

The Street View images are even older, at least 1-2 years, and even there you can already see a sag in the pavement at that spot.

Bob G. said...

T/O/:
When I saw this on the news last evening, I was praying you were not ANYWHERE near the area at the time ofthe collapse.
Underground erosion no doubt.
(bad drainage?)

Goes to show that our nation's infrastructure is not in as good a shape as we might think.

And I can also see a LOT of jobs potential, should THIS administration EVER decide that AMERICA AND HER PEOPLE COME FIRST.

Thank goodness that NASA is making Muslims feel good, though.

Ann T. said...

Dear The observer,
You are one sharp observer indeed!
I'm impressed.
Ann T.

anonymoose said...

Bob G.,

Get the fuck over it.

The shitty suburban Grandview Triangle has nothing to do with Barack Obama or Democrats. Or George Bush II, or Republicans. Or Independents. Or Tories. Or Whigs. Or Liberal Democrats. Or Labour.

Get. The. Fuck. Over. It. And. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

For fuck's sake I am so tired of you trolls running around like Chicken Little.

Fuck.

The Observer said...

Ah, comments. The life blood of the interwebs...

Anon#1: No engineer here--just two eyeballs and what it has been like to drive over that increasingly large dip over the past months.

Brent: I think your friend and I were seeing it coming, as they say. Truthfully, I was attributing it to the nearby expansion joint, like a dip that developed on northbound 71 near the Swope exit.

Anon #2: Great info--and that explains why everything is so green on these shots. Clearly, in May, something was going on.

Bob G: Keeping closer to home due to financial constraints--keeps me off the interstate. I was probably on Red Bridge Road instead! The fly here: new construction, just a few years old--it has no business failing. Someone will have jobs engineering and fixing--done date Sept 30.

Ann T: I just got to wondering, you know, what it looked like before the collapse. I did know what it felt like to drive on before the failure. Just curious, I was...

Anon #3: I thought about moderating you because your language was so blue, but you made me laugh too hard.

Somewhere, an engineer's head is rolling...or should be. Whether it's a construction engineer or a design engineer, I don't know.

Thanks everyone for riding by, and don't lose anything in that big hole.

The Observer

anonymoose said...

@the observer:

Thanks for leaving it up. I think I went a little overboard, but I stand by my comment. I just can't handle anymore truthiness. Real objective data and facts must rise to the top. Not this melding the facts to fit a certain worldview. Ugh.

Keep up the good work here on the site!