The Science of a Bridge Collapse

The Science of a Bridge Collapse — page 1 — Published in the United States of America by Cherry Lake Publishing Ann Arbor Michigan www cherrylakepublishing com Consultants C C Fu Director and Research Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Maryland Marla Conn ReadAbility Inc Editorial direction Red Line Editorial Book design and illustration Design Lab Photo Credits Shutterstock Images cover 1 9 left 13 18 US Coast Guard 5 Alex Ghidan Shutterstock Images 9 right Fernando Blanco Calzada Shutterstock Images 10 AP Images 15 Paul Sakuma AP Images 17 Robert A Mansker Shutterstock Images 21 Weaver Tripp St Petersburg Times AP Images 27 Delmas Lehman 28 Copyright 2015 by Cherry Lake Publishing All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bethea Nikole Brooks author The science of a bridge collapse by Nikole Brooks Bethea pages cm Disaster science Audience Age 11 Audience Grades 4 to 6 Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-63137-623-8 hardcover ISBN 978-1-63137-668-9 pbk ISBN 978-1-63137-713-6 pdf ebook ISBN 978-1-63137-758-7 hosted ebook 1 Bridge failures Juvenile literature 2 Bridges Accidents Juvenile literature I Title TG470 B45 2015 624 2 dc23 2014004029 Cherry Lake Publishing would like to acknowledge the work of The Partnership for 21st Century Skills Please visit www p21 org for more information Printed in the United States of America Corporate Graphics Inc July 2014 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nikole Brooks Bethea is a professional engineer and a writer She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Florida She lives in the Florida Panhandle with her husband and four sons

The Science of a Bridge Collapse — page 2 — TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 A Disastrous Design 4 CHAPTER 2 Collapse by Scour 12 CHAPTER 3 Overloading Bridges 16 CHAPTER 4 Environmental Forces 20 CHAPTER 5 Collisions and Accidents 26 TOP FIVE WORST BRIDGE COLLAPSES 30 LEARN MORE 31 GLOSSARY 32 INDEX 32

The Science of a Bridge Collapse — page 3 — 21st century skills library 4 A Disastrous Design chapter 1 Bridges are everywhere They allow people to easily cross railways waterways highways and low areas such as valleys or canyons Bridges are so common people often cross them without even thinking about them They assume the structures were designed properly But sometimes bridges fail On the evening of August 1 2007 in Minneapolis Minnesota the unthinkable happened Tom Hughes was driving his pickup truck across the Interstate 35W

The Science of a Bridge Collapse — page 4 — disaster science 5 The collapse left dozens of cars scattered on the remains of the structure Bridge when he felt an unusual movement Ripples in the roadway seemed to move toward him His truck bumped over them Something was wrong He decided to stomp on the accelerator trying to get off the bridge as quickly as possible Suddenly he felt the back of his truck drop The truck fell through the air and tumbled down the collapsing bridge It ﬁnally landed on a piece

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