QUBEC BRIDGE COLLAPSE

Official name Carries Crosses Locale Maintained by Design Longest span Total length Width Opening date cost

Pont de Qubec 3 lanes of roadway 1 rail line 1 pedestrian walkway St. Lawrence River Quebec City, and Lvis, Quebec Canadian National Railway Cantilever bridge 549 m (1,800 ft) 987 m (3,239 ft) 29 m (94 ft) wide December 3, 1919 $25 Million Dollars.

It is the longest cantilever, steel Railway Bridge in the world. Its sister bridge is the Firth of Forth Bridge in Scotland. The Quebec Bridge is a riveted steel structure with 8,000,000square feet of coatable structural steel. The overall length is 3239 feet and the width is 94 feet.

The bridge is 340 feet high, from the top of the cantilever to the water below. Each cantileverspan is 580 feet long.(15) The Quebec Bridge accommodates 1 rail line, 3 lanes of automotive traffic and 2 pedestrian walkways.

The Quebec Bridge was declared a historic monument in1987, by the Canadian & American Society of Civil Engineers and a National Historic Site on January 24, 1996 by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

In 1882 Quebec Bridge Company was granted the contract for the bridge Due to short finance , nothing was done until 1887 when Quebec Bridge was incorporated with the Railway Company Theodore Cooper, the most reputed engineer of that time became the main consulting engineer for the project
Construction was contracted to : Phoenix Bridge Company Initial design was produced by: Peter Szlapka , which wasre viewed and approved by Cooper. Upon Coopers recommendation the loading of the bridge[was increased]by extending the length of thecenter span from [1,600 to 1,800 feet]. The reason being is that Piers constructed in deeper water would be subject to the heavy ice floes of the main channel.

Improper design
Material used Irresponsibility

Lack of equipment
Lack of budget

Management problem

Construction problem

Miscalculation

first
Wrong used in carbon steel

Reduced the number of piers

Overload

second

Lack of budget

Wrong usage equipment

Lack of budget
Reduced the material and research to minimum Wrong used in carbon steel Reduced the number of piers Moved the supports toward to the shores Miscalculation Miscalculated the limitation of material and the whole structure

Irresponsibility
The chief engineer of the project had never been to the bridge during the construction.

Ignorance
Somebody discovered the problem but nobody paid attention to it.

On August 25, 1907. A loud sound came out from The Qubec Bridge constructionarea and it shook the surrounding houses in vicinity.

A terrible cracking was made and it could be heard in miles. A thick dust raised and the bridge fell into the St. Lawrence River. In this tragedy, among the 86 workmen, 75 of them lost their life there while only 11 of them survived. The entire structure took only 15 seconds to collapse.

The chief engineer, Theodore Cooper did not receive enough resource from The Government of Canada. He had to build a bridge with the small budget. He also wanted to build the greatest bridge in the world with smallest amount of money. As a result, he ignored many problems in order to finish the project. First of all, he increased the length so that the bridge could span 61m longer. Secondly, he decreased the number of piers and moved the piers toward to the shores. This helped to reduce the building cost and the depth. Furthermore, he reduced the research and material to the minimum. Although it helped to save lots of money, it would increase the load of the piers and weakened the whole structure.

To build the longest bridge, the engineers ignored many problems before the construction was started. First of all, because of reducing the cost to a minimum, they did not do any research in material. Thus, the original material had to support an extra load. Secondly, they brought the piers further shoreward. Although it helped to reduce the building cost, it would decrease the depth. It was very dangerous because it affected the foundation of the whole bridge system. The engineers did not do any research in material. So,they built the bridge with a wrong material, carbon steel. Carbon steel is a cheap construction material. It is heavy, weak and it is very easy to bend. Thus, the load to the bridge was much larger and buckling occurred.

Buckling is caused by heavy load. When a load is added onto a bridge, the bridge will be compresses and tensed at the same time. If it continues, the buckling will occur and the whole structure will crack. However, it can be prevented by reinforcement.

Improvement after the first collapse

After the bridge collapsed, the engineers found that it was not practical to cut cost by reducing the use of material. Also, they discovered that they used a wrong material to buildtheir bridge. To prevent the disaster happened again, they chose Nickel Steel instead of CarbonSteel. Nickel Steel was a stronger and lighter material. For sure, it was more expensive.The other thing they did was to modify the design. They shifted the piers towards the center of the river. Although it would bring a larger cost, it increased the depth. Thus, the foundation was better and the bridge could support a larger load.

Since the bridge collapsed, the engineers did a lot to improve the bridge.
Theoretically, the bridge should not collapse again. However, the bridge collapsed again during construction nine years later.On September 17, 1916, unfortunately the disaster happened again.

When the jack sbegan to raise the structure in place between the cantilever arms, the jack broke and the whole structure crashed into the river. Eleven more deaths were added to the QubecBridges toll.

The engineers used a different construction method to build the second bridge than the first one. In the first bridge, the bridge was build from both sides of the river. Then, the engineers extended and joined both in together.

In the second one, the whole structure was prefabricated. After finishing every individual component, they joined them together.General speaking, the bridge could be built by both methods. However, the construction equipments played an important role.

In the second construction, the whole structure was prefabricated and the engineersassembled everything together by jack. However, they ignored an important factor. The weight of the structure was too heavy for the jack. It exceeded the payload limit of the jack.The reason was lack of budget again. In the first bridge, carbon steel was used as the main material in the construction. After it collapsed, nickel alloy was used to replace carbon steel. Different alloy is made of different materials. Different materials will affect theirphysical and chemical properties. If the compositions are different, the properties will betotally different. The following table introduces the compositions of cast iron (Material A,first bridge) and nickel alloy (Material B, second bridge).

Nickel Steel instead of Carbon Steel Change in Construction method Redesign done by seven engineers Effective equipments are been used

Improvement after the collapse

 Strength (Torisonal stiffness) Economical in material Lightweight Quick to construct

Advantage

Disadvantage

Buckling can occur

It can be unaesthetic