So here are some additional infos from the local media here in Dresden. This bridge was a very early one of its construction kind, with a big problem being a lack of proper water sealing. This allowed road salt to seep into the concrete and corrode the steel. This problem was known for a while and the other parts of the bridge where already renovated to fix this issue, but this section was the last one and schedueled for next year. Apparently there was also a neglect of general mainenance during the GDR era. The biggest shock to everyone is that nobody could predict it, even though bridges are monitored thoroughly every 3 years with every crack, every mm of movement being assesed and recorded. Bridges are considered the best monitored buildings in germany, where safety is already the absolute priority. Another bridge in Dresden, the "Blaues Wunder", was already closed for busses and trucks years earlier because of safety concerns It is a miracle that it collapsed empty at 3 in the night, the last tram passed it 18min earlier. Right next to the bridge is also the famous "Filmnächte am Elbufer", which hosts concerts and movies every evening from june to august, with increased tram traffic and hundreds of pedestrians on that very bridge at the same time. This could have been such a massive catastrophe.
Painted rust syndrome it's called in the US. Whereby you simply paint over the rust so the people don't complain about the aging infrastructure. This looks like all the reenforcing steel snapped almost at the same time. This is a global problem as most developed nations have aging infrastructure. We need more civil engineers per structure now than when things were built. Most structures are designed for 50 years and built to the budget at the time.
NO read the comment above " Bridges are considered the best monitored buildings in germany, where safety is already the absolute priority. " You might paint over them in the US and ignore them - not in Germany.
@eliotness4029 sorry to break your fantasy world, but the bridge was checked every 3 years and was set to be renovated. The investigation now focused on what the previous check up missed that could allow such a thing to happen.
That is because bridges back then had used not only different materials, but most importantly, arches. And arches behave differently than modern beam construction.
I live in the US and I got a chuckle from the 2 guys that said that this sort of thing is more likely to happen in the US. Germany and the US are not the only countries in the world that have crumbling infrastructure problems. I suspect it's most countries.
@@stevemcgowen that's exactly the amount of time needed for these things to fail. They weren't built to last as long as they are being used. The original idea was that these would be replaced by newer, better tech about 35 years after originally being built. The whole world is dealing with this issue because we have not had a global infrastructure push since WW2.
@@stevemcgowen 70 years is pretty much how long a lot of those bridges built (and roads, dams, etc.) were meant to last, so all that stuff built in the 50s/60s/70s is getting to the point of needing to be replaced, or at least seriously upgraded. It's the same for a lot of countries after WW2.
The problem isn’t that the bridge collapsed, the problem is that no one warned before that it was likely - in other words it wasn’t thoroughly checked.
@@walther2492 That simply can't be true, because if it was, that bridge would be closed already. Maintenance is very important and engineers can always tell if a bridge needs reinforcement or closure.
I loved the interviewee chorus of "I thought we were better than everybody else". Truly an attitude to inspire rearmament programmes in adjoining countries.
It is fortunate, it did not fail when it had the added weight of the trams as would be expected. Perhaps the cool temperature at night caused enough contraction, so that a separation became possible.
Wonder if in the investigation they will find the engineers suggested a bridge with a lifespan of 150 years. The politicians enter the conversation, and find out the cost of steel and tell the engineers: "we want that bridge design but but not at that price". "Ok you can have the bridge at half the price: BUT you need to run a maintenance programme every five years doign x, and every 25 years replace 25% of the cables according to this plan". Bridge opens, and in five years time the maintenance budget is cut to zero and no one talks about it further.
Like the Champlain Tower collapse (condo building in Florida, collapsed in 2021), the bridge collapsed in the early hours, at the coolest time of the day, when the bridge is getting shorter as it cools. It might only be cm or two, but in an older bridge, nearing the end of it's design life, that can be more than enough to precipitate a collapse.
Wait a minute -- you're saying that the city A) has a central space and water heating system and that B) it is susceptible to a single point failure? That's insane.
Both similar to and different from those places here in the US which have city water mains, or city sewer lines, or communication cables, and such, supported by the bridge structure. For instance, Thursday August 8, this year, 2024, in Pittsburgh, a 30 inch diameter, 76cm, water main attached to the Fort Duquesne Bridge ruptured.
@@susanpetropoulos1039 Possibly steam/hot water pipes from a power plant that are used for domestic heating. Downtown Denver Colorado uses such a system.
That's an Eastern Bloc way of doing things. Common all over Russia. Typically those systems get shut down for 2+ weeks during the summer for maintenance, so the city is without hot tap water.
Those aren´t the only pipes that cross the Elbe, but the main ones. So it took some time to close the leak and reroute the water. But with a enegie provider where a single balloon (not a big hot-air-balloon, but like those on birthday parties) can disrupt the energie grid of the greater Dresden area, so that there are not traffic lights, trams etc. working, what do you expect?
What’s happening to Germany infrastructure, the an airport that was a complete disaster, railways that are on there knees , new buses that don’t work and now bridge collapse
Well … people keep voting parties into power that only care about filling their own pockets. And next year we’re gonna do it again because of the “evil foreigners” 🪦
Well, I have just been over there in July and heard on the radio that they decided to invest way less than usual to keep the infrastructure up to date and people even commented, that this will be fatal at one point. Like they don't even invest the minimum it would take to keep the infrastructure going, let alone to build new infrastructure.
Reunification of Germany started with the collapse of the Berlin Wall but the Unification Treaty was official about a year and a half later, on October the 3 of 1990. So you probably mean that almost 35 years ago, that information would have not been accessible.
@@henryterranauta9100 NATO is 80% USA. Also, after WWII, USA and western Europe largely contributed to rebuilding Germany. It's called being fair or pragmatic if you will...
Based on what the interviewers said and my experience living in Germany, the locals sometimes feel in a bubble and that everything here is perfect and under control. They don't realise so many issues they have (not only infrastructure, especially technologically) that somehow are not collapsing yet. One simple example is simplify process via internet and cash payments. Things are changing for the best here? Yes, definitely. But still lagging behind compared with some developing countries. They slowly realise this harsh reality for them. On another note, safety is a precious intangible asset they have and always complain about it.
Those were boomers. They're special. They don't use _technology_, they wouldn't know it's state nor would they care. Biggest group in many Europe societies. That's different in Africa or Asia for example.
Let's be fair: Germany doesn't have the best track record when it comes to online banking. For more info, read up on how _Bildschirmtext_ (Germany's answer to Minitel, built on the UKs Prestel system) very nearly bankrupted the Hamburger Sparkasse... 😳
It also the huge loss of face to be wrong or to accept responsibility for errors. They will fight and go red-faced and be offended. So instead they seek to externalise and shift blame. It was done by immigrants. It's the gypsies. That bridge in Dresden? Well that was built during the Soviet era in East Germany. This inability to own up to an error and move forward with its rectification means nothing gets pointed out and nothing is fixed. It's also evident in the dieselgate scandal at Volkswagen or the BER airport farce in Berlin. Coming back to the bridge, yes it was built in the 60s but Germany reunited in 1990. Hasn't it been inspected since? Nobody will be comfortable to ask that question.
You are absolutely right. I'm German and I'm saying this for years. We are losing track of our problems because people think it's still 2002 and everything is fine and the world is jealous of our economy and so on. Meanwhile they vote for socialist governments which are destroying everything.
Maintenance hasn’t been kept up with. Proper maintenance costs money. What has been happening everywhere to siphon off money from necessary maintenance?
How can you assume that without fact check? You mean the government invest almost nothing on infra during the past 30 years? No wonder people in the east vote AFD
We asked ourselves the same question in Britain when a vacant office block pancaked (No injuries)... *Despite* all the authorities being up to date, the oil lanterns being correctly filled and lit, and the tea having been freshly brewed and with _just_ the right amount of milk and sugar in it... 🫖🇬🇧😋
We apply the same methodology in the UK, but we're also strict on working time directives: Our bridges *only* collapse between 09:00 and 17:00 hours Monday to Friday, and never on bank holidays or national festivals... 🌉🇬🇧😇 ...Despite the fact our national standard solution for bridge repair and maintenance is a roll of gaffer tape (Builders tensile fabric tape) and such a „repair“ is „good“ for at least 75 years... 🫖🇬🇧😉
Sounds like post-tension failure. The expansion across the river relies on cable tension to maintain structural integrity. Whether due to corrosion or some other failure, the entire section suddenly fails at one time.
I am an Indian immigrant in Germany. As I see India becoming (VERY VERY SLOWLY) like Germany every year, Germany feels more and more like home every day... 😂
Dresden citizen here. We are very lucky that no one was injured. Now it's like an attraction. With the current flood and sunshine, a strange picture. Who knows how long it will take for the bridge to be rebuilt. Or whether the other two bridge sections of the Carola Bridge may be used. The worst thing is that we have another bridge in Dresden, similar year of construction, similar construction. This bridge was to be rebuilt in 2020. Hopefully it won't happen there as well. You are only allowed to drive at 30 km/h instead of 50 on this bridge for a few years. My professor gave a great interview. :)
Saying that this is expected to happen in other countries but not there shows the pathetic level of arrogance of some Germans. It is really sad. Luckily no injured people.
@@stache1954It is well documented infrastructure in Germany has been underfunded for decades in favor of a tight budget. That is one of the burdens now fir slower economy. The absolute chosen ignorance, to avoiding seeing reasonable faults in governance in this country keeps me amused.... Bad, internet, late trains, insane lengthy bureaucracy... However a German will say, why are you pointing this out, as everything is working.... Go figure 🤷🤷🤷
officials already stated that they didn't expect this part of the bridge being in such a bad state already, while the other parts of the same bridge were renovated the past few years
Yeah, good point. Dresden was totally flattened in some areas during the war and the money for reconstruction was quite limited in the east. I still remeber the ruins of Dresden and I'm only 37.
@@Breznak From a distance Dresden- at least the 'historic' centre looks old, but the closer you get, the more it looks like a Disney set. No staining from the Industrial Revolution. No weathering. You see gaps and flaws you don't see in historic buildings. A few buildings were re-built using original stone, but the ones which weren't really stand out.
@@stevemcgowen Dude, can you please stop with misinformation. I'm from Dresden and your "knowledge" is none. 1) What you are talking about is one square in the old town with a mix of traditional and modern reconstruction. Not all of Dresden was destroyed. There are a lot of old buildings that survived the bombings. 2) Not every building built in GDR after ww2 is a fail. Most of them get renovated and are just fine. Or do you really think a collapse of the Berlin TV tower happens soon? Wasn't meant as an insult btw, cheers mate.
@@GrandTheftChris Nearly all of Dresden was destroyed. I have been to Dresden many times. I know history. I live in Prague. I know what original construction looks like, vs. reconstruction of similar architecture and materials. Perhaps look at some photos, video, and facts about what happened to Dresden?
Concrete in Roman times was different and more natural and many aqua ducts have lasted thousands of years. "The strength and longevity of Roman 'marine' concrete is understood to benefit from a reaction of seawater with a mixture of volcanic ash and quicklime to create a rare crystal called tobermorite, which may resist fracturing."
In most cases, the cause is not the concrete, but the steel inside the concrete, which becomes fatigued by movement or destroyed by corrosion and loses its load-bearing capacity.
They did crumble though, most of Roman times buildings have parts that have fallen down. Nowadays they’re being maintained by modern engineers, for their historical value.
not really. most of roman infrastructure have long collapsed. the ones still standing are just the lucky ones of the best ones. the survivors do have something special (aside from the luck of not being cannibalized for usable stone) going for them design-wise, but they aren't likely to be the average quality of Roman work.
This man saying that 'it is symptomatic', really? Bridge was build in 1970, which was DDR at that time and quality specific for this moment in history of Eastern Europe.
The bridge building standards were mostly equal in Eastern and Western Germany, quality was similar. There are a lot of Western German bridges on the brink of collapse today, for example in Cologne, Leverkusen, Lüdenscheid (old motorway bridge had to to shut down some years ago and blasted this year), etc. - one huge problem is the huge amount of traffic, the architects could not predict back in the days. This shortened the life span of the structure.
He meant symptomatic of neglect. Take a look at some of the other comments. The structural flaws were long known in this type of construction, but regular inspection and maintenance was not done. Beyond that, it is a ticking time bomb all over the world with steel re-enforced concrete.
@@LeoPlaw That's not true, the bridge was regularly inspected and actually the 2 other parts were renovated already, and completed 1 or 2 years ago. The 3rd and last section which got bad notes in an inspection report last year was due for renovation in 2025. Overall it is easy to complain about the poor status of many structures but money fails to do them all at once and even if that would be possible it would create a massive traffic infarction as there are so many structures due for heavy renovation.
Why would you believe that couldn't happen there but would happen here in the US? The US has older bridges more solid bridges than that one and they're still standing. Bridges can fail anywhere, Germany included.
Well; If _Germany's_ struggling with infrastructure upkeep - Despite having deep-seated membership of and the full assistance of the EU - The chances for a country which has dumped its responsibilities to the regional community and run away from the EU aren't looking all that great... 🌉🇬🇧😉
In laymans terms I think what he was trying to say is that the bridge is not overbuilt. That the engineers used exactly enough building material to construct the bridge to make it as quick, simple and economical as possible
The GDR may have been a "brother state", but they had their own engineers. Damn good ones in some parts. But the state dictated a strict course to cut down on costs. The thing is, it isn't just the fact that it collapsed, but that nobody saw it coming. We normally have extremely strict control for bridges and infrastructure overall, so something went definetly wrong .....
Don't fool around, it was planed and built by Germans. The bridge building standards were mostly equal in Eastern and Western Germany, quality was similar. There are a lot of Western German bridges on the brink of collapse today, for example in Cologne, Leverkusen, Lüdenscheid (old motorway bridge had to to shut down some years ago and blasted this year), etc. - one huge problem is the huge amount of traffic, the architects could not predict back in the days. This shortened the life span of the structure.
Modern bridges rely on material strength. Horizontal structures are not inherently stable. Hence, when the material is compromised, such as rust, the structure will give way. Ancient bridges are curved or use curvatures to provide structural support.
No it's not because it was a Soviet bridge from the soviet era, when that city was in east Germany. STOP saying that, you embarrassing Germany even more. There are plenty of engineers around the world maintaining every bridge ever build. They could definitely tell if a bridge needs reinforcement or closure before collapse. For the love of God, instead of blaming the past, take responsibly and ask for better maintenance, your lifes are in line.
@@eliotness4029you should stop taking drugs mate. Every bridge in Germany is checked every 3 years, this one was checked more often as it was already known to need major renovation, just like its sister bridge, that got renovated in 2018. Germany is not Russia where most bridges never got an inspection
I wonder if the construction of the bridge is similar to the one in russia, which collapsed under the weight of a freight train some months ago? This bridge had a known flaw in it's construction.
@@goldenboy6840 they did stuff. Repairs were already scheduled. It was just not expected to be structurally unstable as it showed little signs of that.
Redundant design means there is more to maintain. Neglect means there are other spending priorities in a society so redundancy may keep a bridge from collapsing but it will still close a bridge if it is neglected.
That's because the infrastructure is quite old in Germany and thus becoming more and more a problem child. The core network was built (or rebuilt) in the 1940s-1970s and since then its basically just maintaining and conserving or sometimes building all new structures if its necessary, but the main network itself is already there. In many developing countries highways and overall dense road networks are less than 30 or 40 years old. Some countries have just started building this kind of infrastructure. Even some Post Soviet/Eastern European countries still don't have a real freeway highway network and are yet to be build with many cities only connected by 2 lane country roads like big parts of Russia (apart from roads leading to Moscow) or Romania, Ukraine etc.. India started building 4 lane freeway highways in the late 1990s, China in the mid-1980s. Their infrastructure is so new that this whole issue of conserving and maintaining older structures wont be a problem for them in the next decades and nowadays of course we build stronger constructions compared to the 60s and nowadays we know better how many cars will drive on this bridge. But sooner or later those countries will face these challenges too because its one thing to build complex, dense infrastructure networks but its another thing to maintain it because that's just as expensive and complex and extensive but much more unpopular. Everyone likes new shiny engineered things but maintaining older stuff doesn't get you votes as a politician. Voters don't see anything new and they expect that the things that are already there simply work. And they don't want endless construction sites on their way to work. If you successfully maintain a large highway network there will be no one to applaud you. If you build a gigantic modern bridge as part of a highway where there was just a lousy country road before, well then you are the king of the province. Thats why politicians tend to save the money reserved for infrastructure maintenance, spend it on other things and put the problems on the back burner so that the next government has to deal with them.
The problem is that you just can't replace all the bridges at once. Others have pointed out that this is eastern Germany, so it was Soviet construction. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of bridges which need to be improved or replaced. They're not all imminently dangerous, either. It's simply that construction standards have gotten better over time - if we replaced every building the moment people learnt to build more safely/efficiently, we'd be constantly bulldozing practically every structure on earth. The issue in this case will likely be that either there were flaws or shortcuts taken during its construction which no one knew about because the ussr hushed it up, or that maintenance had lapsed and the current operators hadn't been thorough enough in their inspections. In either case, obviously this is not an acceptable outcome, but the lesson going forward will be to review all similar bridges and make sure it's not a widespread issue, before jumping into panic mode.
@@stevemcgowenaw shucks. And I thought I was being so clever. But good to know. They did mention that they would never build that type of bridge nowadays.
Ordinary citizen: This is symptomatic of the fact that everything has been neglected here. Engineer: These bridge designs from the 70s aren't ideal. We don't build them like that anymore.
The lack of redundancy is not the correct assessment for the Baltimore bridge collapse. That ship dwarfed the bridge. No amount of redundancy would have prevented the collapse. Instead, what may have been missing was redundancy in the ship's navigation or propulsion system.
The Baltimore bridge wasn't a redundancy issue. It had the entire supporting pier taken out from under it. No amount of redundant design can account for that. And this bridge is a prestressed box beam design. It is tough to expect redundancy in this solid design if the cables corrode (which is my theory) and fail because the cables are keeping the concrete in compression. This seems to be a lack of maintenance and not a design issue. It also appears that the bridge next the collapsed bridge had some recent rehab work at the joints.
@@danlowe8684 I don't know but in a news conference an engineer talking about it said that if it was a modern bridge there would have been enough redundancy to prevent a "total" collapse.
@@louisstennes3 Yes, I saw that. So, in this case, (using arbitrary numbers) if you have 10 cables responsible for supporting the span, redundancy may dictate that if any 3 cables fail, the bridge will remain standing. The problem in a case of poor maintenance is that the remaining 7 being relied on are also in a compromised condition and are no longer able to hold their designed load.
That appears to be prestressed concrete box beam construction. My guess is that the prestressed cables (or anchors) corroded and failed. At 0:49 it appears that recent rehab work was performed on the neighboring bridge.
It was checked several times in the last months, because it was set to be completely renewed, like the other part of the bridge. So no, everybody wonders why this happend.
1970' soviet style construction with a salty water soaked concrete because of no proper insulation. Only in my city in Poland a dozen such bridges had to be replaced because of advanced reinforcement corrosion. It looks like they renovated the beam's surface without paying attention to symptoms of advanced internal reinforcement corrosion like rusty stains. Recently it also suddenly become colder after the very hot summer, so the material shrinking may be the last nail to the coffin (unreinforced concrete has practically zero tensile strength).
They dont understand why. The bridge was just inspected by a team of professional German engineers, Ahmud and Abu, not long ago and they said it is upto code.
Hilarious how people get so fatalistic so quickly; ‘everything’ is in bad shape and I expect this to happen in the US(I assume because there were some bridge collapse stories in last few years. How humans make causal connections and generalize is so ridiculous sometimes.
oh come on. modern engineering practices essentially FORCE engineers to cut costs to the point of being just good enough. the maths are done so that we can figure out the bare minimum required and then we add on ten percent or something essentially exactly like that. what do we expect to be the outcome?
Reinforced concrete bridges built 50-100 years ago are at risk today. It has been taught that steel properly covered with concrete does not rust. Anyway, if a single place doesn't meet this condition for various technological reasons, the whole thing can fall apart. A mystery for me is why it didn't collapse under the tram that was going there a few minutes before.
The cause is simple, lack of inspection and maintenance. Bridges and buildings don't just spontaneously collapse without first showing signs of pending disaster months and sometimes years in advance,. We have loads of ancient bridges here in Berlin, but none of them have spontaneously collapsed. The reason is that these bridges are constantly under inspection and in many cases removed and new ones built.
Listen to German Professor of Civil Enginneering. One possibility is internal electrical corrosion of the reinforcement. Cannot see internal corrosion??
Ffs let the expert speak out, you interrupted him at the crucial point. Can't the channel spare those additional seconds? Edit: The negligence is not symptomatic for Germany is it however for whatever the DB lays its hands (or tracks) on.
His office is in the basement where the actual engineer work is done. They knew the bridge didn't have a tether to hook the bridge chunks together. A boat bumped the pylon or it tilted over time. The bridge deck chunk slides off the plinth pylon one day and it all falls into the river, somehow, in under a minute. How could this happen? Don't bridge collapses take minutes at a time? Perhaps not. Why wasn't it secured? No money? Where was it spent? Perhaps, who-ever they are, spent the money elsewhere. Hmmm. So, the bridge falls like the engineers clearly warned them about. The government doesn't listen. Uh-ohh. Then they force engineer to be the face of their negligence. I could be wrong. I think he was forced to give this interview. Don't know. What have we learned here?
When periodic maintenance is not adhered to on infrastructure, it will eventually degrade. The Brooklyn Bridge in NYC was built in the late 19th century, around 1883 I believe. It was built before the automobile, and it still stands today with all that heavy traffic on a daily basis. Still, not all of the infrastructures in the USA are in pristine shape but the world isn't perfect either. Thank goodness no one was hurt in that bridge collapse.
I used to think Germany was a rich, developed country... now i realised Asian countries like China, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong are 100 years ahead of European countries like France, Germany, UK
Somebody knew this was going to collapse. They were just told to look the other way. You don’t have that many educated engineers and inspectors that don’t know their occupation.
As a Canadian, this is very surprising to me. Germany always came across as very proactive in infrastructure maintenance, unlike the US that chronically defers infrastructure maintenance for budgetary reasons. A failed bridge is a very loud symbol of pennywise and pound foolish government institutions.
So this true picture of first world country infrastructure. I heard bridge collapsing in China or India but never imagined same happening to Germany, USA and Japan.
@@mycosys and yet, there's no mass bridge collapse happening in Russia, there are more of them since Soviet times after all, and if sth happens it is indeed because of maintenance issues. Looks dodgy , this situation 🙂
The grandpa remarks were hilarious😂 However, as an American living in Germany, I know all about TÜV. It's passed those inspections after all this time? 😂
Germany needs to wake up to their technical decline. There is a general retreat from the pride in science and engineering of the past. There might be a design fault, but surely current maintenance methods need to be looked at. Ever since the craziness of Germany shutting down nuclear power production I have worried for the future of the country. Nuclear power is one of the greenest methods of generating electricity, and to replace nuclear with coal and gas hidden behind an unrealistic promise of solar and wind is simply irresponsible. If these bridge types have known flaws, why are there not remedial works to strengthen them? Why are they not being replaced? And why is there not a rigorous inspection regime in place to look for the signs of collapse in their early stages? This is sad to see in a country that was once a world leader in technology and engineering, when things made in Germany were expected to last
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So here are some additional infos from the local media here in Dresden.
This bridge was a very early one of its construction kind, with a big problem being a lack of proper water sealing.
This allowed road salt to seep into the concrete and corrode the steel.
This problem was known for a while and the other parts of the bridge where already renovated to fix this issue, but this section was the last one and schedueled for next year.
Apparently there was also a neglect of general mainenance during the GDR era.
The biggest shock to everyone is that nobody could predict it, even though bridges are monitored thoroughly every 3 years with every crack, every mm of movement being assesed and recorded. Bridges are considered the best monitored buildings in germany, where safety is already the absolute priority.
Another bridge in Dresden, the "Blaues Wunder", was already closed for busses and trucks years earlier because of safety concerns
It is a miracle that it collapsed empty at 3 in the night, the last tram passed it 18min earlier.
Right next to the bridge is also the famous "Filmnächte am Elbufer", which hosts concerts and movies every evening from june to august, with increased tram traffic and hundreds of pedestrians on that very bridge at the same time. This could have been such a massive catastrophe.
Thanks for the info, this has helped indeed!
you also gotta take in account it was under East Germanys control which did play a part in infrastructure.
Small correction: The last tram crossed the bridge 8 min before collapse.
@@GrandTheftChrisThe transit boss was too dumb to calculate a time difference properly
I’d imagine the cold temperatures over night probably shrunk the rebar and could’ve snapped from the rust
Painted rust syndrome it's called in the US. Whereby you simply paint over the rust so the people don't complain about the aging infrastructure. This looks like all the reenforcing steel snapped almost at the same time. This is a global problem as most developed nations have aging infrastructure. We need more civil engineers per structure now than when things were built. Most structures are designed for 50 years and built to the budget at the time.
The money in civil engineering comes when building new -- not when doing maintenance. So no one maintains public structures.
Yep, lots of construction of 50-s and 60-s, especially concrete, are coming to the end of life
America has many crumbling infrastructures. Doesn't the Eiffel Tower also suffer from 'painted rust syndrome'?
NO read the comment above " Bridges are considered the best monitored buildings in germany, where safety is already the absolute priority. "
You might paint over them in the US and ignore them - not in Germany.
@@piccalillipit9211 This is East Germany - old habits are highly resilient.
Meanwhile The 300 year old bridge still standing 😊
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
@@eliotness4029 renovated back in 2019 ... at least the other parts of the bridge; The remaining part was supposed to be done in the near future
@eliotness4029 sorry to break your fantasy world, but the bridge was checked every 3 years and was set to be renovated.
The investigation now focused on what the previous check up missed that could allow such a thing to happen.
Systematic, Germany is in recession and broke. This is what happens when there is no money for repairs.
That is because bridges back then had used not only different materials, but most importantly, arches. And arches behave differently than modern beam construction.
I live in the US and I got a chuckle from the 2 guys that said that this sort of thing is more likely to happen in the US. Germany and the US are not the only countries in the world that have crumbling infrastructure problems. I suspect it's most countries.
Pretty much nothing in Dresden is older than 70 years, though...
@@stevemcgowen that's exactly the amount of time needed for these things to fail. They weren't built to last as long as they are being used. The original idea was that these would be replaced by newer, better tech about 35 years after originally being built. The whole world is dealing with this issue because we have not had a global infrastructure push since WW2.
@@TrevorJC all that financing got sucked into private for profit hands. They make money by asset stripping. See privatization
Eastern Europe has had that push after th fall of communism in the 90s@@TrevorJC
@@stevemcgowen 70 years is pretty much how long a lot of those bridges built (and roads, dams, etc.) were meant to last, so all that stuff built in the 50s/60s/70s is getting to the point of needing to be replaced, or at least seriously upgraded. It's the same for a lot of countries after WW2.
The problem isn’t that the bridge collapsed, the problem is that no one warned before that it was likely - in other words it wasn’t thoroughly checked.
It was checked several times in the last months, because it was set to be completely renewed, like the other part of the bridge.
German engineering!
@@mrtee3477 - East German Communist engineering built in 1971.
@@mrtee3477 *Soviet
@@walther2492 That simply can't be true, because if it was, that bridge would be closed already. Maintenance is very important and engineers can always tell if a bridge needs reinforcement or closure.
I loved the interviewee chorus of "I thought we were better than everybody else". Truly an attitude to inspire rearmament programmes in adjoining countries.
😂
It is fortunate, it did not fail when it had the added weight of the trams as would be expected. Perhaps the cool temperature at night caused enough contraction, so that a separation became possible.
Wonder if in the investigation they will find the engineers suggested a bridge with a lifespan of 150 years. The politicians enter the conversation, and find out the cost of steel and tell the engineers: "we want that bridge design but but not at that price".
"Ok you can have the bridge at half the price: BUT you need to run a maintenance programme every five years doign x, and every 25 years replace 25% of the cables according to this plan". Bridge opens, and in five years time the maintenance budget is cut to zero and no one talks about it further.
The bridge was built under the socialist GDR regime, go figure.
It wasnt a Toyota Corolla bridge or it would have lasted another 8 billion years..
I almost died! 🤣😂
But when it started to fail, the collapse accelerated uncontrollably.
Like the Champlain Tower collapse (condo building in Florida, collapsed in 2021), the bridge collapsed in the early hours, at the coolest time of the day, when the bridge is getting shorter as it cools. It might only be cm or two, but in an older bridge, nearing the end of it's design life, that can be more than enough to precipitate a collapse.
Wait a minute -- you're saying that the city A) has a central space and water heating system and that B) it is susceptible to a single point failure? That's insane.
Both similar to and different from those places here in the US which have city water mains, or city sewer lines, or communication cables, and such, supported by the bridge structure. For instance, Thursday August 8, this year, 2024, in Pittsburgh, a 30 inch diameter, 76cm, water main attached to the Fort Duquesne Bridge ruptured.
Do they have hot springs like Iceland or other natural source? Otherwise, why doesn’t each building heat their own water?
@@susanpetropoulos1039 Possibly steam/hot water pipes from a power plant that are used for domestic heating.
Downtown Denver Colorado uses such a system.
That's an Eastern Bloc way of doing things. Common all over Russia. Typically those systems get shut down for 2+ weeks during the summer for maintenance, so the city is without hot tap water.
Those aren´t the only pipes that cross the Elbe, but the main ones. So it took some time to close the leak and reroute the water. But with a enegie provider where a single balloon (not a big hot-air-balloon, but like those on birthday parties) can disrupt the energie grid of the greater Dresden area, so that there are not traffic lights, trams etc. working, what do you expect?
Wow ,not only in the US,these things can happen anywhere ! Glad nobody is hurt .
What’s happening to Germany infrastructure, the an airport that was a complete disaster, railways that are on there knees , new buses that don’t work and now bridge collapse
Well … people keep voting parties into power that only care about filling their own pockets. And next year we’re gonna do it again because of the “evil foreigners” 🪦
BER is a nice airport though.
@@GrandTheftChris But at what cost to time money and reputation
Well, I have just been over there in July and heard on the radio that they decided to invest way less than usual to keep the infrastructure up to date and people even commented, that this will be fatal at one point. Like they don't even invest the minimum it would take to keep the infrastructure going, let alone to build new infrastructure.
it's partially due to the "free market" policy of handing out contracts. The cheapest one gets it. But the cheapest one is always the worst
30 years ago, this story would have NEVER been allowed outside of Germany
🇩🇪🇩🇪Germany is prosperous to help Ukraine🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪but not to keep up its own bridges🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
Reunification of Germany started with the collapse of the Berlin Wall but the Unification Treaty was official about a year and a half later, on October the 3 of 1990. So you probably mean that almost 35 years ago, that information would have not been accessible.
Yeah it’s not 1980s bro get over it
@@neo5973 1984*
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
German engineering has a new meaning
🇩🇪🇩🇪Germany is prosperous to help Ukraine🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪but not to keep up its own bridges🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
DDR engineering.
Dude this happens every week in the US, this wouldnt even make the news there
@@Ian-vj5pv Russian engineering. The bridge was built in the 60s when Dresden was part of DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik).
@@henryterranauta9100 NATO is 80% USA. Also, after WWII, USA and western Europe largely contributed to rebuilding Germany. It's called being fair or pragmatic if you will...
Based on what the interviewers said and my experience living in Germany, the locals sometimes feel in a bubble and that everything here is perfect and under control. They don't realise so many issues they have (not only infrastructure, especially technologically) that somehow are not collapsing yet. One simple example is simplify process via internet and cash payments. Things are changing for the best here? Yes, definitely. But still lagging behind compared with some developing countries. They slowly realise this harsh reality for them. On another note, safety is a precious intangible asset they have and always complain about it.
Those were boomers. They're special. They don't use _technology_, they wouldn't know it's state nor would they care. Biggest group in many Europe societies. That's different in Africa or Asia for example.
Let's be fair: Germany doesn't have the best track record when it comes to online banking. For more info, read up on how _Bildschirmtext_ (Germany's answer to Minitel, built on the UKs Prestel system) very nearly bankrupted the Hamburger Sparkasse... 😳
It also the huge loss of face to be wrong or to accept responsibility for errors. They will fight and go red-faced and be offended. So instead they seek to externalise and shift blame. It was done by immigrants. It's the gypsies. That bridge in Dresden? Well that was built during the Soviet era in East Germany. This inability to own up to an error and move forward with its rectification means nothing gets pointed out and nothing is fixed. It's also evident in the dieselgate scandal at Volkswagen or the BER airport farce in Berlin. Coming back to the bridge, yes it was built in the 60s but Germany reunited in 1990. Hasn't it been inspected since? Nobody will be comfortable to ask that question.
You are absolutely right. I'm German and I'm saying this for years. We are losing track of our problems because people think it's still 2002 and everything is fine and the world is jealous of our economy and so on. Meanwhile they vote for socialist governments which are destroying everything.
Maintenance hasn’t been kept up with. Proper maintenance costs money. What has been happening everywhere to siphon off money from necessary maintenance?
Not mentioned is that Dresden was in East Germany, so this is a Soviet era bridge.
How can you assume that without fact check? You mean the government invest almost nothing on infra during the past 30 years? No wonder people in the east vote AFD
Russia Russia Russia
🇩🇪🇩🇪Germany is prosperous to help Ukraine🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪but not to keep up its own bridges🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
Actually it was mentinoned.
LoL
Russia ate my homework
How could this happen? The paperwork work was immaculate and all the fax machines was working properly
We asked ourselves the same question in Britain when a vacant office block pancaked (No injuries)... *Despite* all the authorities being up to date, the oil lanterns being correctly filled and lit, and the tea having been freshly brewed and with _just_ the right amount of milk and sugar in it... 🫖🇬🇧😋
Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V also worked?
German efficiency: We don't need a big ship to crash a bridge, out bridges collaps by themselfs!
We apply the same methodology in the UK, but we're also strict on working time directives: Our bridges *only* collapse between 09:00 and 17:00 hours Monday to Friday, and never on bank holidays or national festivals... 🌉🇬🇧😇
...Despite the fact our national standard solution for bridge repair and maintenance is a roll of gaffer tape (Builders tensile fabric tape) and such a „repair“ is „good“ for at least 75 years... 🫖🇬🇧😉
@@dieseldragon6756Hey, don’t insult gaffers’ tape 😂
Sounds like post-tension failure. The expansion across the river relies on cable tension to maintain structural integrity. Whether due to corrosion or some other failure, the entire section suddenly fails at one time.
Probably built before reunification. Be interested to know if the bridge was subject to regular inspection?
I am an Indian immigrant in Germany.
As I see India becoming (VERY VERY SLOWLY) like Germany every year, Germany feels more and more like home every day...
😂
Bihar se ho kya 😂
God forbid I cannot migrate from Africa to Ger-frica
That was East German Infrastructure Failure, nothing like that happens in the West😂😂😂😂😂
@@nomxhosapekani7966 dude, are you delusional ? A ship wrecked a bridge in the US, not even a month ago
Because of AfD?
Looks like more problems for Olaf Scholz. It certainly does not rain but pours.
Dresden citizen here.
We are very lucky that no one was injured.
Now it's like an attraction. With the current flood and sunshine, a strange picture.
Who knows how long it will take for the bridge to be rebuilt. Or whether the other two bridge sections of the Carola Bridge may be used.
The worst thing is that we have another bridge in Dresden, similar year of construction, similar construction. This bridge was to be rebuilt in 2020. Hopefully it won't happen there as well. You are only allowed to drive at 30 km/h instead of 50 on this bridge for a few years.
My professor gave a great interview. :)
Saying that this is expected to happen in other countries but not there shows the pathetic level of arrogance of some Germans. It is really sad. Luckily no injured people.
Well this is unusual for Germany. Calm down.
@@stache1954It is well documented infrastructure in Germany has been underfunded for decades in favor of a tight budget. That is one of the burdens now fir slower economy. The absolute chosen ignorance, to avoiding seeing reasonable faults in governance in this country keeps me amused.... Bad, internet, late trains, insane lengthy bureaucracy... However a German will say, why are you pointing this out, as everything is working.... Go figure 🤷🤷🤷
officials already stated that they didn't expect this part of the bridge being in such a bad state already, while the other parts of the same bridge were renovated the past few years
@@stache1954 sorry, it is unusual everywhere or do you hear about bridges falling down everyday?
At least Bavaria has gotten subsidised thoroughly, because the minister of infrastructure was often from the CSU.
Post War reconstruction was quick and shoddy. You see post war reconstruction in Dresden already being renovated.
Yeah, good point. Dresden was totally flattened in some areas during the war and the money for reconstruction was quite limited in the east. I still remeber the ruins of Dresden and I'm only 37.
@@Breznak From a distance Dresden- at least the 'historic' centre looks old, but the closer you get, the more it looks like a Disney set. No staining from the Industrial Revolution. No weathering. You see gaps and flaws you don't see in historic buildings. A few buildings were re-built using original stone, but the ones which weren't really stand out.
"Ich tut Mir lied
Holy Germania.". 🪶🇧🇪😢
Transmission sent from North East Albuquerque,NM.
10.52a
12.9.24
@@stevemcgowen Dude, can you please stop with misinformation. I'm from Dresden and your "knowledge" is none. 1) What you are talking about is one square in the old town with a mix of traditional and modern reconstruction. Not all of Dresden was destroyed. There are a lot of old buildings that survived the bombings. 2) Not every building built in GDR after ww2 is a fail. Most of them get renovated and are just fine. Or do you really think a collapse of the Berlin TV tower happens soon? Wasn't meant as an insult btw, cheers mate.
@@GrandTheftChris Nearly all of Dresden was destroyed. I have been to Dresden many times. I know history. I live in Prague. I know what original construction looks like, vs. reconstruction of similar architecture and materials. Perhaps look at some photos, video, and facts about what happened to Dresden?
Tis the year when bridges around the world fell down!
Concrete in Roman times was different and more natural and many aqua ducts have lasted thousands of years. "The strength and longevity of Roman 'marine' concrete is understood to benefit from a reaction of seawater with a mixture of volcanic ash and quicklime to create a rare crystal called tobermorite, which may resist fracturing."
In most cases, the cause is not the concrete, but the steel inside the concrete, which becomes fatigued by movement or destroyed by corrosion and loses its load-bearing capacity.
They did crumble though, most of Roman times buildings have parts that have fallen down. Nowadays they’re being maintained by modern engineers, for their historical value.
There was also the type that included the blood of slaves killed for the purpose. It apparently had long life too.
Nonsense
not really. most of roman infrastructure have long collapsed. the ones still standing are just the lucky ones of the best ones. the survivors do have something special (aside from the luck of not being cannibalized for usable stone) going for them design-wise, but they aren't likely to be the average quality of Roman work.
The question is how long are does bridge sections suppose to last .
I can't believe the quality 😢
Someone dropped their Nokia
"There is an acute danger", he says while standing next to the bridge.
This man saying that 'it is symptomatic', really? Bridge was build in 1970, which was DDR at that time and quality specific for this moment in history of Eastern Europe.
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
The bridge building standards were mostly equal in Eastern and Western Germany, quality was similar. There are a lot of Western German bridges on the brink of collapse today, for example in Cologne, Leverkusen, Lüdenscheid (old motorway bridge had to to shut down some years ago and blasted this year), etc. - one huge problem is the huge amount of traffic, the architects could not predict back in the days. This shortened the life span of the structure.
He meant symptomatic of neglect. Take a look at some of the other comments. The structural flaws were long known in this type of construction, but regular inspection and maintenance was not done. Beyond that, it is a ticking time bomb all over the world with steel re-enforced concrete.
He meant the vibes is off with Germany these days.
@@LeoPlaw That's not true, the bridge was regularly inspected and actually the 2 other parts were renovated already, and completed 1 or 2 years ago. The 3rd and last section which got bad notes in an inspection report last year was due for renovation in 2025. Overall it is easy to complain about the poor status of many structures but money fails to do them all at once and even if that would be possible it would create a massive traffic infarction as there are so many structures due for heavy renovation.
Why would you believe that couldn't happen there but would happen here in the US? The US has older bridges more solid bridges than that one and they're still standing. Bridges can fail anywhere, Germany included.
I noticed an exaggerated deflection over the central pier where the bridge snapped a couple of days prior which I have a photo of.
So when is the London bridge falling down ? They never fall as in the song.
Well; If _Germany's_ struggling with infrastructure upkeep - Despite having deep-seated membership of and the full assistance of the EU - The chances for a country which has dumped its responsibilities to the regional community and run away from the EU aren't looking all that great... 🌉🇬🇧😉
When was the bridge last inspected?
Everyday?
@@stringlarson1247 nope most likely
In laymans terms I think what he was trying to say is that the bridge is not overbuilt. That the engineers used exactly enough building material to construct the bridge to make it as quick, simple and economical as possible
wow now I am doubting German engineering
Because one bridge collapsed that was built by the Soviets? 🤷🏻🤣
*Soviet
@@davidlynch9049 More likely it was built by the GDR.
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
@@eliotness4029 They get into that in the report.
Built by some of the Soviet Union’s finest engineers.
...someone forgot to maintain it ever since
The GDR may have been a "brother state", but they had their own engineers. Damn good ones in some parts. But the state dictated a strict course to cut down on costs.
The thing is, it isn't just the fact that it collapsed, but that nobody saw it coming. We normally have extremely strict control for bridges and infrastructure overall, so something went definetly wrong .....
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
Don't fool around, it was planed and built by Germans. The bridge building standards were mostly equal in Eastern and Western Germany, quality was similar. There are a lot of Western German bridges on the brink of collapse today, for example in Cologne, Leverkusen, Lüdenscheid (old motorway bridge had to to shut down some years ago and blasted this year), etc. - one huge problem is the huge amount of traffic, the architects could not predict back in the days. This shortened the life span of the structure.
@@mr.trueno6022 but never checked by so smart western people?
Germany tries to destroy a bridge in Crimea and fails. A bridge in Germany fails without any help at all. Karma?
The Bundeswehr doesn't operate there currently. Other folks might be using some of their donated stuff. Not the same thing.
@@surelyyoujokemeinfailure7531 they don't operate officially
It seems rather similar to the 2018 bridge collapse in Genoa. Both bridges were made from pre-stressed concrete, and built around the same time.
Why not in Germany?
Modern bridges rely on material strength. Horizontal structures are not inherently stable. Hence, when the material is compromised, such as rust, the structure will give way. Ancient bridges are curved or use curvatures to provide structural support.
No it's not because it was a Soviet bridge from the soviet era, when that city was in east Germany. STOP saying that, you embarrassing Germany even more. There are plenty of engineers around the world maintaining every bridge ever build. They could definitely tell if a bridge needs reinforcement or closure before collapse. For the love of God, instead of blaming the past, take responsibly and ask for better maintenance, your lifes are in line.
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
@@eliotness4029you should stop taking drugs mate.
Every bridge in Germany is checked every 3 years, this one was checked more often as it was already known to need major renovation, just like its sister bridge, that got renovated in 2018.
Germany is not Russia where most bridges never got an inspection
I wonder if the construction of the bridge is similar to the one in russia, which collapsed under the weight of a freight train some months ago?
This bridge had a known flaw in it's construction.
@@AlphaHorstAnd why didn't they do anything? Maybe those who checked the bridge were taking drugs?
@@goldenboy6840 they did stuff. Repairs were already scheduled.
It was just not expected to be structurally unstable as it showed little signs of that.
Wow in Germany but note the bridge was build 1971 when east Germany was not part of free west Germany ?
Soviet built. That says it all.
Very interesting point !
@@dfirth224 soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
@@eliotness4029 the westerners assumed it was build like a Russian Tank! Tuned out, when the truth come out, it was!
Redundant design means there is more to maintain. Neglect means there are other spending priorities in a society so redundancy may keep a bridge from collapsing but it will still close a bridge if it is neglected.
That's because the infrastructure is quite old in Germany and thus becoming more and more a problem child. The core network was built (or rebuilt) in the 1940s-1970s and since then its basically just maintaining and conserving or sometimes building all new structures if its necessary, but the main network itself is already there. In many developing countries highways and overall dense road networks are less than 30 or 40 years old. Some countries have just started building this kind of infrastructure. Even some Post Soviet/Eastern European countries still don't have a real freeway highway network and are yet to be build with many cities only connected by 2 lane country roads like big parts of Russia (apart from roads leading to Moscow) or Romania, Ukraine etc.. India started building 4 lane freeway highways in the late 1990s, China in the mid-1980s. Their infrastructure is so new that this whole issue of conserving and maintaining older structures wont be a problem for them in the next decades and nowadays of course we build stronger constructions compared to the 60s and nowadays we know better how many cars will drive on this bridge. But sooner or later those countries will face these challenges too because its one thing to build complex, dense infrastructure networks but its another thing to maintain it because that's just as expensive and complex and extensive but much more unpopular. Everyone likes new shiny engineered things but maintaining older stuff doesn't get you votes as a politician. Voters don't see anything new and they expect that the things that are already there simply work. And they don't want endless construction sites on their way to work. If you successfully maintain a large highway network there will be no one to applaud you. If you build a gigantic modern bridge as part of a highway where there was just a lousy country road before, well then you are the king of the province. Thats why politicians tend to save the money reserved for infrastructure maintenance, spend it on other things and put the problems on the back burner so that the next government has to deal with them.
Surprised you are not blaming Russia
Sad to think the brenner pass is similar
@3:35 If they knew this bridge was a poor construction with no redundancies, then why didn't they rebuild or create redundancies?
Construction failures after 50 years of work is mainly due to poor maintaince.
The problem is that you just can't replace all the bridges at once. Others have pointed out that this is eastern Germany, so it was Soviet construction. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of bridges which need to be improved or replaced. They're not all imminently dangerous, either. It's simply that construction standards have gotten better over time - if we replaced every building the moment people learnt to build more safely/efficiently, we'd be constantly bulldozing practically every structure on earth.
The issue in this case will likely be that either there were flaws or shortcuts taken during its construction which no one knew about because the ussr hushed it up, or that maintenance had lapsed and the current operators hadn't been thorough enough in their inspections. In either case, obviously this is not an acceptable outcome, but the lesson going forward will be to review all similar bridges and make sure it's not a widespread issue, before jumping into panic mode.
😮I was THERE taking photo last year. Wonderful view. Wow
Meanwhile the bridge built in the 1800's is still standing.
The Augustus Bridge was wrecked in WW2 and rebuilt. It was rehabbed maybe 5 years ago, as well.
@@stevemcgowenaw shucks. And I thought I was being so clever. But good to know. They did mention that they would never build that type of bridge nowadays.
🇩🇪🇩🇪Germany is prosperous to help Ukraine🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪but not to keep up its own bridges🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
@@henryterranauta9100Yes because the war in Ukraine is for Germany a far bigger issue than Bridges...
This is age of old infrastructure 😢😢
Ordinary citizen: This is symptomatic of the fact that everything has been neglected here.
Engineer: These bridge designs from the 70s aren't ideal. We don't build them like that anymore.
Similar to the Baltimore bridge collapse after the freighter collision. That bridge had no redundancy either.
The lack of redundancy is not the correct assessment for the Baltimore bridge collapse. That ship dwarfed the bridge. No amount of redundancy would have prevented the collapse. Instead, what may have been missing was redundancy in the ship's navigation or propulsion system.
The Baltimore bridge wasn't a redundancy issue. It had the entire supporting pier taken out from under it. No amount of redundant design can account for that. And this bridge is a prestressed box beam design. It is tough to expect redundancy in this solid design if the cables corrode (which is my theory) and fail because the cables are keeping the concrete in compression. This seems to be a lack of maintenance and not a design issue. It also appears that the bridge next the collapsed bridge had some recent rehab work at the joints.
@@danlowe8684 I don't know but in a news conference an engineer talking about it said that if it was a modern bridge there would have been enough redundancy to prevent a "total" collapse.
@@louisstennes3 Yes, I saw that. So, in this case, (using arbitrary numbers) if you have 10 cables responsible for supporting the span, redundancy may dictate that if any 3 cables fail, the bridge will remain standing. The problem in a case of poor maintenance is that the remaining 7 being relied on are also in a compromised condition and are no longer able to hold their designed load.
That appears to be prestressed concrete box beam construction. My guess is that the prestressed cables (or anchors) corroded and failed. At 0:49 it appears that recent rehab work was performed on the neighboring bridge.
Lack of maintenance?
It was checked several times in the last months, because it was set to be completely renewed, like the other part of the bridge. So no, everybody wonders why this happend.
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
1970' soviet style construction with a salty water soaked concrete because of no proper insulation. Only in my city in Poland a dozen such bridges had to be replaced because of advanced reinforcement corrosion. It looks like they renovated the beam's surface without paying attention to symptoms of advanced internal reinforcement corrosion like rusty stains. Recently it also suddenly become colder after the very hot summer, so the material shrinking may be the last nail to the coffin (unreinforced concrete has practically zero tensile strength).
@@Dziki_z_Lasu salty water? so smart of you. don't drink too much german beer. it iwll be no so salty.
@@eliotness4029 Never heard about road salt?
It seems like OLDER bridges survive alot better
They dont understand why. The bridge was just inspected by a team of professional German engineers, Ahmud and Abu, not long ago and they said it is upto code.
Hilarious how people get so fatalistic so quickly; ‘everything’ is in bad shape and I expect this to happen in the US(I assume because there were some bridge collapse stories in last few years. How humans make causal connections and generalize is so ridiculous sometimes.
I was stunned when I read this happened in Germany then remembered Dresden had been part of East Germany.
oh come on. modern engineering practices essentially FORCE engineers to cut costs to the point of being just good enough. the maths are done so that we can figure out the bare minimum required and then we add on ten percent or something essentially exactly like that. what do we expect to be the outcome?
German People who made Fun of us when Bridge Collapses happened in India let me remind you of Something called as Karma
Reinforced concrete bridges built 50-100 years ago are at risk today. It has been taught that steel properly covered with concrete does not rust. Anyway, if a single place doesn't meet this condition for various technological reasons, the whole thing can fall apart. A mystery for me is why it didn't collapse under the tram that was going there a few minutes before.
It took some time for cracks to spread ?
These things usually happen in Romania, was not expecting such a thing in Germany.
In summary: negligence in maintenance on top of bad project. How many more bridges are in this situation ?????
if you know this..why no reinforcement or repairs..during 5 decades of knowing..🙄
The cause is simple, lack of inspection and maintenance. Bridges and buildings don't just spontaneously collapse without first showing signs of pending disaster months and sometimes years in advance,. We have loads of ancient bridges here in Berlin, but none of them have spontaneously collapsed. The reason is that these bridges are constantly under inspection and in many cases removed and new ones built.
The concrete needed a bit of a stress relief after 53years
thank god there were no Tram crossing
It feels surreal to see an engineering issue in a Germanic country.
Listen to German Professor of Civil Enginneering. One possibility is internal electrical corrosion of the reinforcement. Cannot see internal corrosion??
Best thing about this news reader is that he doesn't let the expert waft on to nothing. He like, give me an eli5 to tell the people! Haha
i don't understand what you are saying but i think i understand your meaning and i agree sir, the man is an incisive interviewer.
Ffs let the expert speak out, you interrupted him at the crucial point. Can't the channel spare those additional seconds?
Edit: The negligence is not symptomatic for Germany is it however for whatever the DB lays its hands (or tracks) on.
His office is in the basement where the actual engineer work is done. They knew the bridge didn't have a tether to hook the bridge chunks together. A boat bumped the pylon or it tilted over time. The bridge deck chunk slides off the plinth pylon one day and it all falls into the river, somehow, in under a minute. How could this happen? Don't bridge collapses take minutes at a time? Perhaps not. Why wasn't it secured? No money? Where was it spent? Perhaps, who-ever they are, spent the money elsewhere. Hmmm. So, the bridge falls like the engineers clearly warned them about. The government doesn't listen. Uh-ohh. Then they force engineer to be the face of their negligence. I could be wrong. I think he was forced to give this interview. Don't know. What have we learned here?
Wow and some bridges last intact from Roman days..wibrator of the tram couse additional problems
When periodic maintenance is not adhered to on infrastructure, it will eventually degrade. The Brooklyn Bridge in NYC was built in the late 19th century, around 1883 I believe. It was built before the automobile, and it still stands today with all that heavy traffic on a daily basis. Still, not all of the infrastructures in the USA are in pristine shape but the world isn't perfect either. Thank goodness no one was hurt in that bridge collapse.
I used to think Germany was a rich, developed country... now i realised Asian countries like China, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong are 100 years ahead of European countries like France, Germany, UK
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
sure because those things never happen in china😂
@@Nostrox so smart western people?
We’ve been developed longer, hence older infrastructure.
Japan is not, it has plenty of old 70-s - 80's infrastructure.
"The lack of redundancy" question was top tier stupidity. You don't have to be an engineer to understand the word....
Somebody knew this was going to collapse. They were just told to look the other way. You don’t have that many educated engineers and inspectors that don’t know their occupation.
As a Canadian, this is very surprising to me. Germany always came across as very proactive in infrastructure maintenance, unlike the US that chronically defers infrastructure maintenance for budgetary reasons. A failed bridge is a very loud symbol of pennywise and pound foolish government institutions.
German Engineer - "It was designed to snap like that."
So this true picture of first world country infrastructure. I heard bridge collapsing in China or India but never imagined same happening to Germany, USA and Japan.
dude its weekly in the US, and this is a Soviet bridge
@@mycosys doesn't change the fact that Germans failed to maintain it.
China's bridges collapse before they opened lol
@@mycosys and yet, there's no mass bridge collapse happening in Russia, there are more of them since Soviet times after all, and if sth happens it is indeed because of maintenance issues. Looks dodgy , this situation 🙂
how many hours until they blame this on "russian saboteurs"?
Since the bridge was built in East Germany when it was the GDR then it's more of the USSR fault.
soviet built. but never checked by so smart western people?
@@eliotness4029 it Germany everything gets checked and all the bridges are checked, the issue is why weren't the checks good enough...
@@matthewbaynham6286 so smart of you
@@eliotness4029 yes
Engineers should recheck the math, first of all.
If that bridge was built ib the late '70's, that part of Germany was East Germany, so shoddy construction should be no big surprise.
"if you get a reputation as an early riser you can sleep until noon", Germany has the best engineers,
Older gentleman shading the US, initially annoyed me. However, it's likely justifiably so given the 'deferred maintenance' pathology in America.
The grandpa remarks were hilarious😂 However, as an American living in Germany, I know all about TÜV. It's passed those inspections after all this time? 😂
We should build like the Victorians did.
Germany needs to wake up to their technical decline. There is a general retreat from the pride in science and engineering of the past. There might be a design fault, but surely current maintenance methods need to be looked at. Ever since the craziness of Germany shutting down nuclear power production I have worried for the future of the country. Nuclear power is one of the greenest methods of generating electricity, and to replace nuclear with coal and gas hidden behind an unrealistic promise of solar and wind is simply irresponsible.
If these bridge types have known flaws, why are there not remedial works to strengthen them? Why are they not being replaced? And why is there not a rigorous inspection regime in place to look for the signs of collapse in their early stages?
This is sad to see in a country that was once a world leader in technology and engineering, when things made in Germany were expected to last
East German bridge built with Soviet technology
1:08 Germans are shocked that river erosion also happens in their country. Moreover, that their infrastructure doesn't last forever. 🤨
Blame Putin??
you got rail lines buzzing like guitar strings on a concrete theory of a bridge beam. 🙃
imagine driving 300kmh in autobahn and bam a bridge collapses on u 😮
big surprise but the 60's is about almost 70 years ago(well 65 but time flies faster)
Unexpected in the country with world class Engineering
DDR was far from anything world class. For example they were producing a Hindustan Ambassador like Trabant up to 90'.