What Do They Do With Key Bridge Collapse Debris Salvage?
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- Опубликовано: 20 май 2024
- Jeff Ostoff shows you videos and photos released by the US Army Core of Engineers showing the steps they go through to process the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse debris and trusses.
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They barge the collapsed bridge debris to the new 10-acre laydown yard used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to process wreckage from the Francis Scott Key Bridge site. An estimated 50,000 tons of concrete and steel collapsed; once removed, the wreckage is sorted and transported two miles away by barge to Sparrows Point. Debris and wreckage removal is ongoing in support of a top priority to safely and efficiently open the Fort McHenry channel.
This documents
1) Waterfront
2) USACE official inspection:
3) Processing yard (wide & closeup)
4) Steel - torch cutting)
5) Steel - machine cutting 
Хобби
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🎥 FIU Bridge Collapse: WORST Engineering Blunders Ever: ruclips.net/video/RS5XxwKIx-U/видео.html
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🎥 Titan Sub NEW Air Force Audio: An SOS For Help? ruclips.net/video/1IJYQpVWY0A/видео.htmlsi=dOwyBsYNhW3MjR_w
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🎥 StreamTime LIVE Baltimore 24-hour cam video on Key Bridge Salvage: ruclips.net/video/2sv7SA2Ybgg/видео.html
The bridge steel looks in very good condition little sign of corrosion.
Yeah it was so strong and fell like a toothpick like nothing else, just dropped.
They are using cutting torches. Not wielding
that not welding, that is cutting.
😎😎🙄🙄💁♂(0:18) Well, scrapping it does not look set upside down to cut down safely: so a shade block? or Shield to a long shore gun??
As a retired owner of a steel mill contact steel mill company I can say that these worker are cutting the pieces small enough to be able to be fed into an electric melt recycle steel furnace. They might use some of the same steel after it has been recycled to build the new bridge.
Maybe, but I have a feeling that they're going to use more concrete on the replacement bridge. Maybe they'll use the metal for the rebar support or conduit materials. The new bridge will need to be designed to withstand the larger loads of the newer container carriers that are huge compared to what was moving through the channel when the Key bridge was built.
They only need to cut to sizes under 1 yard length to meet a scrap price rating of "HM" , That guy is cutting small pieces , maybe there are plans to sell souvenir size to raise money , or maybe they wanted to keep cutting all day and earn the $$$ until the next barge arrived.
So , he is stretching it out for the hourly rate or its souvenir size for auction later.
@@heartobefelt I can see it now,,,Come and get your piece of the bridge,while it`s hot,,(hot from the cutting torch)
@@coachwendy5618 The bridge was fine as it was built,,,the problem was ,,the barriers were not sufficient to keep the ship from hitting the bridge
@@mrcoz1764 NO need for robust protection when the bridge was built. the channel was hundreds of feet away before they kept WIDENING IT! See my comment above. S L Collins, Baltimore, MD
Being a near retired welder, you asked if they are cutting properly, yes they are. Best way is they have extended torch tubes, so they don't have to squat down.
A buddy of mine asked why the welders are not using exothermic “lances” like we use in the heavy rescue field. Back in the 1990’s, all of our fire apparatus and rescue apparatus had the longtime carried oxy-acetylene cutting torches to this type of cutting tool.
Other than training, I’ve only used this type of tool once.
It was a situation where room was limited and a highway galvanized steel guardrail had to be cut away from the interior of a passenger car. It worked well, but sure created a mess of molten metal everywhere.
(+ the surviving passenger had to be equipped with an SCBA due to the fact that galvanized/zinc material was being vaporized in a somewhat confined space environment).
Welding sure seems like brutally tough work, but the newer tech seems to be making the work safer and more bearable.
Looks like he is cutting, not welding to me...odd to ask welders if they are demoing it properly. Shouldn't he ask demo crews, I did a bit a scrapping when I was younger we did it basically the same as they are.
I used an oxyacetylene torch over thirty five years ago for cutting metal while shipfitting. It looks like the burner knows what he's doing. I wouldn't want to be doing it in summer months with all the PPE to be safe, but I'm sure they're making decent money doing it. Thankfully I have an office job.
@@PowderMill Oxy Lancing is for removal of extremely thick or HUGE steel that needs to be removed quickly and fast with no consideration for the metal itself.
They are probably cutting sections and then those sections will be inspected for things and thrown away if nothing is found.
Theres a LOT of cutting and repurposing methods for steel. Oxy Lancing is only for scrapping fast.
@PowderMill I think cutting metal is dangerous in a rescue situation #1 because your doing it fast as possible .... and my nerves was shot from even watching that iron twisted up being burned thru
praying you didn't get slapped ... but the zinc is absolutely unbearable unless you have your mask also oxy tanks limit your traveling #1 reason I've taken this bridge my hole life was compressed gas travel limits in the tunnels. but my experience with lancing rods is your thickness of the goudge like burning thru 12 inch bucket pins. there great for
I a welder that had 45 years of experience and I think they are doing a great job with this project 😊
Imagine the amount of oxy/acetylene being consumed on this project. It boggles the mind on the sheer volume of steel being processed, the workforce, equipment. Thanks to all the trades that are working to clear and rebuild.
Having delivered liquid oxygen to scrap yards and being a welder most scrapers use propane as a fuel gas
It happens all day long every day in the coastal scrap yards of south asia. I guess it must be worth it otherwise they wouldn't bother, although in this case they absolutely have to. American workers with safety gear costs a bit more than Indians in shorts, I reckon.
I thought they would want to save the pieces to study how it came apart but the process of getting it on the barge is doing so much damage the pieces will be useless to the crash study.
@@kimhorton6109 The NTSB has taken numerous photos and most likely has plenty of videos to spend at least a month to review for their preliminary report.
@@kimhorton6109they know how it came down in the sense that it didn't fail, it was damaged by the ship at a crucial support place. The steel was fine. It now needs cut up to be taken away for scrap.
Jeff, the cutting attachment on the excavator is called a 'SHEAR". They are cutting the metal up into 5 foot pieces because you get more money per ton from the scrap yard for doing so.
plus the pieces need to fit in the next step of recycling. that isn't the bigger track-hoe with a shear over there. the shear is more efficient
Being a scrap metal recycler, I can honestly say that there is a price point you have to determine to see if it is worth your time to cut up or disassemble. Prepared versus unprepared. I have found that with our local scrap yard, sometimes your time and energy/fuel costs outweigh the difference in price.
What about the extra cost in labor, torch fuel, etc. Sounds like a no win🤔
Some of those longer lengths of UB would be salable to reuse
@@qbi4614 errr, stress...
Yes they are cutting the steel very well. That helmet/mask and respirator combination is the best that I've seen.
back in the day, we would have been sent in with a short torch, a hard hat and some goggles. We would be expected to breath some of the fumes from the burning paint or fumes from zinc if it was galvanized.
Bro.... My dad had two years engineering at UW... Seattle....... his favorite thing to say to me after he told me something was ...okay explain it back to me with a few different words if you want ...but let me know that you understood what I was talking about .... And then give me a few examples so I even know more that you understood me.
This proved to be invaluable to me all my life.
Sir I really appreciate you taking time to explain things so clearly to everybody we need more people like you thank you very much.
God loves us.
We all have been through it with floating bridges in the state of Washington.... We just built a new bridge connecting State route 520 not too long ago. But the Hood canal bridge sunk and so did the one across to Mercer Island... And they said that the evergreen point floating bridge had to be replaced because it was too old. That's the one they just built... They built all the pontoons for it down here on the Pacific coast in grays harbor and then floated them all the way up to Seattle through the locks... And into lake Washington.... It was amazing how accurately each pontoon had to be..... made exactly like the other ones. Same weight same length same width same.height
Ironically, the steel is being taken to Sparrows Point where it was made back in the 70's when Bethlehem Steel had a huge plant. Now being crunched up into pieces like the circle of life for steel.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
@@jeffostroff circle of life
It would be wonderful if some of the steel could be recycled into the new bridge.
@@JohnnyMotel99 Part of it might - but by the time a new bridge is designed, approved, and constructed this steel will have been melted and used in other projects. I don't doubt they'll save some for something special though.
The Bethlehem Steel story is a sad one itself.
One of the things I learned during my career as a crane operator doing a lot of steel erection, is that bolts in a gusset should never experience any shear force. That is why there are so many bolts, to create enough friction between the two or more pieces of steel so they can never slip pass one another. If the bolts ever experience shear forces then the gusset wasn't designed correctly.
When I design bolt joints I always make them a bit stronger than the beam... the reason is simple. If the joint is stronger I only need to calculate on the beam.. saves work.
Of cause. That dont stop anyone from doing a shoddy work. But well I guess the dude doing the inspection meed to earn his pay as well. (There is some margin for error in the calculation as well.)
I don't know who told you that but they were incorrect. Bolts are designed to resist shear. If the bolts are fully tightened, and fully tightened means a lot more than what a person can do with a big wrench, then there is a friction component that can be utilized so that the friction takes the shear and the bolts do not. However in the average building the bolts are not tightened that much and the bolts do carry the load in shear. The shear capacity of the bolts is higher than the capacity counting on friction. There are a few more things to it than that but most bolts in buildings are designed to carry the shear.
I thought there was supposed to be some play in the joints so the truss would be "statically determinate". That is, there would be no hidden stresses or twists which would could occur if members were rigidly attached.
@@codetech5598 Three main spans like that would be the opposite of statically determinant. If you make the spans continuous you gain strength and stiffness meaning the bridge is more efficient and uses less steel. Of course the downside is if you take out one span you affect the remaining strength of the other 2 spans.
@@user-uv7up4vg6i High strength bolts used in construction will do this IF- IF they are tightened properly which is no easy feat, and IF the steel surfaces are treated properly. When you start adding fancy coatings to protect the exposed steel from corrosion that really affects the ability of the joints to carry shear through friction. Bolts will carry the load just fine in normal shear, there is no trouble there. Bolts designed for friction can have less than half the capacity of bolts designed for shear.
They are not Welders they are burners, the pieces are not being cut for inspection they are reduced to 5 foot or less sections as it is the optimum size for recycling
The first guy to properly identify what they are doing. They are definitely not welding.
the track machine has a demo shear on it for cutting steel in scrap yards and demolition site. The guys with the torches are cutters. Welders put steel together, cutters cut it apart. Very slow process cutting this much steel compared to what a shear could process. They have their work cut out for them either way.
We call them burners where I come from because that's what they're doing. Steel this thick is burned unlike the thin kind they use in newer automotive manufacturing. I learned how to weld and burn when I spent a short time as a shipfitter many many years ago. For the most part it's still the same now just more automated when possible.
The "Grapple" you referred to is a Shear made by LaBounty , from memory they can cut up to 75 mm thick steel but the blades wear out faster that way , They have hardened steel cutting blades that can be unbolted and flipped over 4 times until they need replacing or sharpening.
The hydraulic rams on the ones i serviced were over 400 ton of cutting force.
Yes they are doing it correctly! I worked in heavy fabrication for decades. Did hours of demo burning of plates, beams, channels and angles of all sizes. We we're always cautioned about standing too close to material we were cutting up. We used long lanced burning and scarfing torches to extend our reach for safety. Steel members that are fabricated into different shapes, especially in building and bridge construction. Could potentially be under strain and once they are cut loose they can spring back at you. You have to plan your cuts and make sure your last release cut is close to your reach where you are in the clear and not further away. It was hard ,dangerous and hot work. I really miss it!
Great videos as always Jeff. FYI, cutting with a torch is not the same as welding. A cutting torch uses acetylene gas with if I remember correctly, a degree of pure oxygen to make a hotter flame. Once the metal is heated red hot, a stream of pure oxygen is injected through the center of the cutting torch which blows away the molten metal, thus making a cut. There is a trigger on the cutting torch that you pull to eject the pure oxygen through the center of the cutting torch. This process does not require the amount of skill needed to weld metal.
Dark glasses are required to protect the eyes from the brightness of the flame.
Excellent description of the process, thanks Tom
Steel is in excellent condition for its age. The paint is phenomenal. Those A36 bolts deserve our applause…as well.
I am a Boilermaker welder rigger from Australia 🇦🇺 those guys are doing a great job cutting up the steel. That bridge was definitely built well. It’s a shame that ship destroyed it. 🙏🇦🇺👨🏭
Thanks for the info!
Glad this guy acknowledges how well the bridge was built. He bad mouthed it in earlier videos😖 I drove to the salvage area and was told they are laying the bridge out as originally built as possible to study strengths and weaknesses in the design and construction before chopping it up for recycling. Impressive operation to behold
I haven't seen any bad mouthing - he criticized that there were no protections against bridge strikes by ships, especially after the Florida bridge disaster decades ago.
The bridge span was well made... the pillars.. well.. let's say there are differing opinions about them.
We used that bridge for years. It was constantly being painted. I believe the state has an excellent maintenance program. Same for the Bay Bridge.
Would be useful to see if corrosion had affected any of the major stress points after nearly a half century.
Funny how methodical they are being here but they promptly carted off and disposed of the twn towers wreckage. I wonder why? 🤔
the bridge is a testament to a great design and American steel...... hopefully the bridge is replaced again in the near future. Hello from New Zealand
Thanks Jeff. You're adding great perspective beyond a single camera view - a behind the scenes look.
Don't know whether to curse or applaud how well this bridge was made. Amazing.
It was okay for it,s time , Build back better .
@@matthewcalifana488 Build back better = kickback better.
BIDEN HARRIS 2024. I LOVE BIDENS INFRASTRUCTURE BILL.
@@dylanmartin3164 Yeah me too .
@@matthewcalifana488 Make it Great Again
These guys are cutting the steal with demolition torches, which has nothing to do with welding, nor was there any rivets in the steel. Nuts and bolts!
Thanks for the live stream Jeff. I was looking for something like that a couple days ago!
After nearly 50 years, the bridge has weathered well
After the sections are removed
They are broken down in prep for recycling
Once all the pieces have been inspected photographed and they have learned what they need to then they go to recycling
Thank you so much for your updates and the links you provided.... I didn't know there was a live feed of the progress.
Technically the gas 'cutting' is actually burning (iron + heat + oxygen = instant rust!)... Once the steel is heated via Oxyacetylene to near white hot by the flame you add 'excess' oxygen then the steel burns (releasing a lot more heat) and the 'cutting' action speeds up 😎
Very impressed with how fast the clean up is going. The Department of Transportation doesn't mess around.
when your spending tax payer money, the government spares no exspense
Army Corps of Engineers probably has more to do with it than the DOT. The ACOE is responsible for the shipping channel.
...and if they have to print a few trillion more to git her done they will
@@williamhaynes7089 That's how it *should* be.
The power of hydraulics is mind boggling!
Another excellent, well-explained video! Thank you for explaining what's happening on all these different, tragic sites in plain English, Jeff
Thanks Jeff for the update. Cool video. I’ve been on this bridge hundreds of times and I guess I took it for granted how this was built. So many memories. There were even many suicides from this bridge, the boy who lived across the street from me did this. Wow. Really hits ya.
Were you traveling by train?
Noooo, I was driving. And on occasion, sitting during a traffic
Jam
@@lumineria1 I suppose that still only leaves Biden who took the train over that bridge. I'll keep searching!
A friend of a friend of mine jumped off the Key Bridge in the late 90's. When it collapsed, naturally that brought up a lot of bad memories for my friend.
For me, the Key Bridge always had a kind of sinister aura (even before my friend's suicide) because my mom was afraid of it. She is also afraid of the Bay Bridge, Delaware Memorial and others like it.
But I had driven across it a few times in my life but I never found it (or any other bridge) scary. Sad to say you don't know what you have until it's gone.
@@leeriffee4606 I know what you mean. I’ve felt it too. I know many people who are terrified of the Bay bridge. I always said a tiny prayer and just crossed it. The Key had that weird bouncing kind of feel, especially right in the center. Like riding a horse. It’s weird the little things you remember in times like this.
That was cutting not welding. The arc flash was not present. Manageable stress on eyes.
I was about to say the same.. but I don't know anything about cutting. I do know a bit about welding.
I was thinking the same. Welding is about joining metals together. This is not welding.
This is a good video if you mute the sound.
Those 2 big yellow cranes you pointed out are rated for 200 tons lift each.The long boom crane further up the shipyard is only 50 ton rated with the boom almost straight up,and this its 50 year anniversary since it was put up.That boom on that crane is 257 feet long and was needed to reach across the super tankers that we built between 1974 and 1977 five in all 265,000 DWT's each.Lots of interesting things I saw during that period......memories that no one can take away
Do they still use those cranes?
Sparrow’s Point was for many decades the site of the huge Bethlehem Steel plant. My father worked there in the summers when he was getting a degree in mechanical engineering at John’s Hopkins University.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is amazing. 👍🏼
Nicely done, Jeff! Thanks!
great coverage Jeff....keep up the great commentary
Excelente trabajo gracias por compartir tus conocimientos
Great footage and commentary. Thank you.
Great commentation and visuals Jeff Thank you
An old power plant was demoed by several of those claw machines several years ago on our river front in Henderson, KY. It took them about three months. Another old bridge was taken down not far from my home. After the new bridge was opened, they cut slots in the old, then used explosives to drop it in the river. They pulled out the pieces and cut them up just like in your video.
Those pieces are not numbered so it is unlikely they are retained for investigation
I would agree. It's not like the bridge structure failed, and I very much doubt there is anything to be learned from just any old random bit of the bridge. In any event, if the whole lot was going to be examined, then they would not be cutting it into small pieces.
No doubt a few key pieces will be retained, such as where the bridge attached to the piers, but as for 99% of it, then I don't think there will be anything to learn. What is more important is, what happened on board the MV Dali, why were the piers not protected against a foreseeable type of collision (other bridges have been brought down by collisions with cargo vessels) and, finally, why was it designed without redundancy so that the entire three spans didn't collapse (and preferable none would).
@@TheEulerIDThere isn't a bridge in the world with redundancy that would keep the bridge up when a main support is removed by a ship.
@@regould221 The principle is to prevent the ship actually coming into contact with the pier in the first place, hence the protection is around the base of the pier and intoi the channel and its approaches.
As for the failure of a main pier then there are designs which will limit the failure to a single span.
Good work, Jeff!
In 1987 a pillar supporting a high voltage electrical transmission tower was hit by a ship in the Delaware River, down river from the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The tower collapsed with its high voltage lines. Fortunately no one was injured. The only problem was the lines were an important cross-tie between NJ and Delaware. The reliability of the grid was challenged until the tower was rebuilt and the lines rehung.
Protecting the foundation must be a part of the bridge design; whether it be from scour or ships..
I doubt very much they will learn anything new from most of those steel truss parts. The bits that will matter, are the piers, the protection around the piers and a few parts where the bridge connects to the piers. It's not as if the bridge failed in an unexpected way, it was just hit be a huge sideways force which it was never designed to withstand, and it was inadequately protected against this sort of scenario. I think the investigators will only want samples of critical parts and maybe a general survey to look for any more wide spread problems, like corrosion. Also, if they wanted a minute examination of ever part, in situ, they would surely not be cutting it up into bite-sized chunks.
So there are three key points :-
1) what went wrong on the Dali, which is important, but kind of secondary to my mind in that infrastructure surely ought to be protected against forseeable events where practicable (and this was a very foreseeable event - here are plenty of instances of bridges either being brought down or being badly damaged by ships and barges).
2) Why was the protection inadequate to prevent a collision like this bringing down the bridge. There are, again, examples of newer bridges with much better protection against ships the size of the MV Dali.
3) The bridge also had a single point of failure. Could it have been designed to avoid that such that, even though damaged, none of the roadway collapsed, or failing that, multiple spans didn't fail.
I hope you win an award for your amazing work. Thank You!
Love your channel! ❤
Every structure is only as good as its foundation.
Great work again Jeff, what I'm noticing is you're a day or 2 ahead of the news outlets. Relating to this tragedy. I took some wielding and cutting torch classes years ago. It was great during the winter, but hellish during the summer months. They're pretty going to be cutting torches here. And other similar industrial devices.
I've said it before, but the FIU Bridge Collapse video is the single best work you've ever done. From a structural analysis level, it's up there with Mario Salvadoris "Why Buildings Fall Down".
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.It was the hardest video.I've had to make I spent weeks working on it
I wonder if people would buy a small portion of the bridge, which would go towards a memorial or whatever. Small enough to pick up or mail. A piece that had a rivet would be nice to have as a part of history.
That cutting arm on the Volvo digger is relatively small. They have one that is way larger, more than twice that size.
It's called a shear.
followed you on the surfside fl devastating event, it was captivating.
The touch on frictional forces is very interesting so I am asking here.
Is this the case in bridges and buildings?
Are the surfaces faces at the joints for bridges made such that the frictional forces in the vertical direction can be the primary force?
Of course, to this interHack there seems to be more of a “sphere” type set of directions, so the bolts have to do something I guess. Any help or point to where I can learn more would be great.
Their welding technique sucks considering they're cutting that steel apart.
My thoughts as well...
Totaly counter productive.
Do you mean the cutting technique?
@@somaday2595 No! I know they are cutting, not welding! The guy in the video referred to it as welding, which it is not.
When someone is welding, they are joining two pieces of metal together. These guys are using a Oxy Acetylene torch to cut apart metal not to weld it.
Ron
Lol duh. If you're a welder you definitely know how to use a cutting torch.
Could They use two moble floating Docks on either side of the bridge and run i beams through the thrusesv of each bridge sections and float them up more level with the surface añd float a third dry dock under the bridge section and float up the bridge sections and cut up the bridge sections inside the dry Docks.
Dang! 0:22 You have to appreciate the scale of that Hyd. Grapple and everything it takes to move it around 👍😎✊
Metal Grappling machine is called: a "SHEAR"....btw
Interesting..thanks Jeff
Great subject sir
Were rivets actually still being used in the 1970’s?
It’s actually amazing how strong some of the structure was.
Great analysis of many tragedies.
Thanks!
Those are bolts, not rivets.
What's the condition of the ship at the moment in cases like this? Are the engines running, is the crew still living on the ship, is it powered by some sort of auxiliary generator or is it just a floating shell? When they get the debris cleared, will it sail under its own power to a repair dock or be towed?
It will be towed. Currently it's sitting on the bottom.
As for electricity the ship has several generators. The main engines are not needed to produce power. The crew can stay on the ship for many days.
Enjoying all the solar powered equipment used on this project
Lots of good static & dynamic stress analysis samples.
Can you get any video of the current state of the Dali bow to see how many containers have been removed?
they removed 38 containers as of yesterday
I realize that some of the containers are in precarious positions. But still, that seems very slow.
They are probobly removing the containers just behind the bridge.
Of cause they can't remove the containers under the bridge untill it's gone. But this will at least give them space to work. Posibly lighten the load a bit so the ship can float even with the compartments flooded.
@nikolatesla5553 the crane is probably splitting duty between lifting containers and bridge parts.
When they raised the Tappan Zee Bridge in NY they cleaned the steal and concrete and barged it out off the coast of Long Island to build an artificial reef in the ocean .
Thank you
"I gotta get me one of these. Don't know what I'd do with it, but looks like fun!"
Same!
that big orange frame thing you see at the offloading @ 0:45 could be an xray machine. i'm guessing they are learning from the stress points and how the metal stood up and what design points they can improve on future models. very cool making positivity from a bad experience.
Lets hope they recycle the old bridge into caissons for large sturdy dolphins for the new bridge.
Don't you know they were "saving money" by not having it properly protected to begin with.
@@bdickinson6751Don't you know they weren't required when the bridge was built and ships weren't as big.
@@regould221 And they couldn't have been installed later as things changed??? They probably had to dredge deeper as well as time went on. Lack of foresight is proving to be extremely costly.
I was wondering how they're doing with unloaded the front of the ship. Is it clear enough to get the bridge off of it?
Excellent!
The scrap without bolts needs to be just under 3 square. I think they are trying to knaw off as much from the sections where different angles come together and are bolted to get it under 3 foot square. However the bolts are different steel than the beams and plates and sometimes they don't want to mix that.
It appears to me, that they're separating the steel to recycle it. If it has rivets and nuts and bolts, cut it out , and move it to another non-pure pile. Otherwise, you'll notice all the plain steel is in a large pile, and the small chunks with bolts in it, are in a different pile. Different grade steel(s) for recycling would be my guess. They're not separating it for the NTSB to reconstruct the bridge to see how it's built. They know how it's built, and how it went down. That isn't a mystery. They know it wasn't fastener failure, or grid failure.
3:44 - it's flame cutting (standard number: 81), which is a commonly used technique for cutting thick metal parts where precision is not important. They use a gas mixture for the flame (propane or acetylene + oxygen) that melts and even burns the metal, and a cutting gas (also oxygen), which blows out the melted and burnt steel (rather slag and oxide) out of the cutting gap.
Your background music on this reminds me Sims CAS music. 😂
They could use the steel for a new Navy ship!😀
I'd be nice to see a time lapse video of the removal process, I'm curious about the size of the superstructure pieces as they are craned off
They're TORCHING, not welding, they're using a cutting torch, that's what us construction guys consider them doing. Usually, on big jobs like this they'll use liquid oxygen because it lasts longer and the tanks are larger. Some contractors like to use propane instead of acetylene because it's cheaper, but doesn't heat up as fast to begin to cut. Most likely they're cutting up the pieces into what the scrap industry calls prepared iron, you get a better price if you prepare the iron before you haul it in to the scrap yard.
I’m surprised they don’t sell the parts to the public, I believe people would come from all over the world to buy a part of it. I would drive down from Bolingbrook Illinois for a souvenir piece.
Ex journeyman ironworker here ... the BOLTS don't hold the weight. It is held by the friction between the plates.
Are the bolts of this bridge for sale ?
The entire thing collapsed because it was built so strong.
Do you think there is a chance for the DALI to capsize???
The bridge was designed and built when shipping coming in and out of the ports were 2/3 the size they are today.
Do you know the tally of containers removed do far?
Many years ago, one of an old saw mill in Thunder Bay was destroyed by a large steel sniper on job site . No welders and crew were needed. Every girdles were snipped into small pieces and a back hoe would pick up the pieces and drop them in the dump box . It’s too dangerous for cutters to cut apart the twisted beams. I see one worker got wiped 50 ft when a beam got cut apart. He did survived , but he quit the job. He said he still has 8 lives left when l talk to him .
Getting a cherry picker mobile crane to assist the torch crew. Use a plate clamp to hold while cutting. Lift up enough so the torch doesn’t burn into rocks.
can they not pull the metal truss on the side via steel ropes?
After the study I would love to have the metal to make a sculpture ! No machine could bend these shapes. I am also a certified welding inspector and have a masters degree in sculpture. I have one sculpture made from this type steel destruction. Lots of potential
That’s quite the cutting torch all I’ve used is the short version never seen those super long versions
03:09 - Those oxy-acetylene cutters are rather small equipment compared to the thermal lances used in cutting up the inches thick WTC steel.
Imagine if the bridge designers had installed bumpers to protect the bridge
Wonder what a few million dollars in protection would have saved
That is call a Metal shear hydrolic, and the rail road torches are the way I cut my metal also , THAY are cutting the way the company tells them to cut, it’s less netal to cut thruogh,,away from bolts and rivets,or double samich metal. Thanks BigAl California.
Getting the steel ready to make more kia replacement engines 🥺 good videos always
or Hyundai cars, engines or even container ships!
What is so amazing is that the gussets held yet the bridge in the video collapsedlike tissue paper tearing.
Can they take the metal and melt it down and use it for the new bridge
They know exactly the quality and composition of the steel. Making it worth more when recycled. Ordinary unsorted scrapyard steel often ends up as rebar.