May 25
This is how NH explains what I discribed. The dirt ramp is sinking and sliding to the south.
We are going to lose this bridge if we get a big enough earthquake?
2010 Inspection
| Status: | Open, no restriction [A] |
| Average daily traffic: | 7,900 [as of 2004] |
| Truck traffic: | 4% of total traffic |
| Deck condition: | Good [7 out of 9] |
| Superstructure condition: | Fair [5 out of 9] |
| Substructure condition: | Satisfactory [6 out of 9] |
| Channel protection: | Bank is beginning to slump. River control devices and embankment protection have widespread minor damage. There is minor stream bed movement evident. Debris is restricting the channel slightly. [6] |
| Scour condition: | Countermeasures have been installed to mitigate an existing problem with scour. [7] |
| Operating rating: | 21.0 tons [19.1 metric tons] |
| Inventory rating: | 15.0 tons [13.6 metric tons] |
| Evaluation: | Structurally deficient [1] |
| Sufficiency rating: | 23.5 |
| Recommended work: | Replacement of bridge or other structure because of substandard load carrying capacity or substantial bridge roadway geometry. [31] |
| Estimated cost of work: | $2,500,000 |
1) We need funding for engineers to contradict the NHDOT.
2) We need to form a group, say 5 or so indiveguals...with the task of creating the public awareness the bridge needs to be replaced. Tasked to replace that bridge...get really creative. The people of the group should think, lets do an experiment...lets act in a way that gets the state to replace that bridge. A dedicated group of people, right this isn't all about the bridge, it is expecting a person's transformation after being emerged in a problem like this. You life direction changes.
I wish I could get some college kids involved in this...they would end up leading different lives.
3) We need a group to be formed... then go out and asked for business assistance and funding to get the job done...
4) We need to catch a big media outlet to spend some money investigating a story like this...what are the national implications...
5) The bridge inspection techniques are not even close to modernity...it reminds me of the banana Republic of Guatemala in the 1950s.
For 93 years the NHDOT has been inspecting this bridge and now they have access problems. What is wrong with this picture? They are a bunch of crooks! Where they stopped inspecting...it is the softest area of the bridge.
However, the report noted that transportation officials were unable to complete the inspection because of an access problem, and would return to finish it “as soon as time allows.”Hinsdale selectmen turning to legislators for new bridge
Posted: Tuesday, April 9, 2013 12:00 pm | Updated: 1:24 pm, Tue Apr 9, 2013.
April 1, 2013@7pmHINSDALE — Selectmen have turned to area legislators in the hopes that they might be the key to the town getting a new bridge to Brattleboro.
State Sen. Molly M. Kelly, D-Keene, and state Reps. William Butynski, D-Hinsdale, Paul S. Berch, D-Westmoreland, Lucy M. Weber, D-Walpole, and Tara A. Sad, D-Walpole, met with town and school officials Monday night to discuss how they might get a proposed project to replace the two bridges connecting the two towns back on the state of New Hampshire’s radar.
“We’ve been trying for quite some time to get this project going, but it keeps getting knocked off the state’s 10-year plan, put back on, or ending up in various states of unknown,” Hinsdale Selectmen Chairman Michael J. Darcy told legislators.
Board members want to do everything they can to keep the project moving forward, he said.
“We feel having these bridges replaced is important for our safety, people being able to get to their jobs, and our economy,” he said.
The project, which has been in the works since the early 1970s, calls for a new, multimillion-dollar bridge to be built south of the Anna Hunt Marsh and Charles Dana bridges, which cross the Connecticut River. The two Pennsylvania truss bridges, which were built in the 1920s, connect Hinsdale to Hinsdale Island, and then Hinsdale Island to Brattleboro. State transportation officials consider the bridges “functionally obsolete,” which means they’re outdated, don’t meet current design standards, are narrow, and have height and weight limitations.
The most recent project cost estimate from the state Department of Transportation is $36.6 million, according to a September 2012 information packet from the Southwest Region Planning Commission.
Route 119 is the only road connection between Hinsdale and Brattleboro, and there are many examples of people living in one town and commuting to the other for work or to shop, Darcy said. Hinsdale and Brattleboro emergency services rely on each other for mutual aid, he said. In addition, Hinsdale contracts with Rescue Inc., which is based in Brattleboro, for ambulance service, he said.
Complicating the problem is vehicles coming off the bridge in Brattleboro, which hit a four-and-a-half-way intersection and railroad crossing that can easily jam up traffic, he said.
“I’ve parked on the island before and walked into work,” Darcy said.
Kelly read the findings of a March inspection of the two bridges by state transportation officials, which concluded that “although the bridges clearly needed attention, they weren’t in danger of failing in the near future.”
However, the report noted that transportation officials were unable to complete the inspection because of an access problem, and would return to finish it “as soon as time allows.”
Kelly offered to contact transportation officials to find out when the inspection would be finished, and to possibly have them meet with town officials on the same day. Selectmen accepted her offer.
She, Weber and Butynski also spoke about the funding challenges the state faces in repairing its infrastructure, and spoke favorably about a legislative bill to increase the gas tax in an effort to cover some of those expenses.
Butynski also spoke about the importance of getting the project back on the state’s 10-year transportation plan, which the Southwest Region Planning Commission is advocating for in its recommendations this month for area improvements.
“The reality is for the bridge to get fully funded, it’s going to require a major federal grant,” he said. “Once the bridge is on the 10-year plan, I think it has a reasonable chance to get federal funding.”
Selectman Jerome Ebbighausen Jr. said town officials have been doing what they can to encourage commercial development along the Route 119 corridor, but for that to happen, tractor trailers and other big trucks need to be able to get across those bridges, which they currently can’t, he said.
“It’s our turn. Somewhere in the last 40 years, we should have been able to get this.”
Talk to the Hinsdale, NH selectmen about the Hinsdale Brattleboro bridge. Basically said it is outside their purview. I reminded them they could declare a ceremonial bridge emergency, start a legal suit...said the Town or selectmen could be held legally liable with me giving this lecture and they did nothing to stop an imminent collapse.Just like everyone, they didn't want to see all my pictures, they didn't want to feel bad anymore with something they think they got no control over...
I laid out a huge big pile of rust and concrete chips...I told them you are never going to forget this, you are going to think back to the crazy mike's route 119 bridge rust chip pile on your selectman's big table if something bad happens to the bridge.
I wish they would update the current selectman list:
Board of SelectmenJohn Smith, Chairman
Mike Darcy, Vice-Chairman
Jay Ebbighausen
Bernard Rideout
Richard Schill
I know Shill is out and chief Gallagher is in... Click on the picture...look at how this bridge was plowing the waters...this is where the damaged occurred.
I was in 2011 walking around in that baseball field...
There is our bridge if this picture and its footing was taken after 1920...I believe it is. The bridge must have been damaged during this period of big storms. Remember our great flood control public works ending in the 1940s and 1950... put a stop to this in the major cities.
Was the damage I'd seen on the bridge south side rocker pad and the exposed footing anchor bolts...the displaced huge granite footing blocks...caused by these big storms?
Must have made an island around the east side footing and roadbed...washed a bunch of it away...then they repaired the bridge and roadway...
Vermont was a very poor third word agrarian culture then and they were ticked off many times with the feds not coming to their rescue in these natural disasters.
The Commons:
In July, 1916, a rainstorm sent the river over flood stage and the island was inundated. Every year, high water took away a little more of the buildings until the fall of 1927, when more than half of the island was washed away. The pavilion was badly damaged and NEPA decided against repairing it. So, it was torn down, bringing the Island to the close of its productive life.The great flood of 1929...said Brattleboro was under 20 feet of water.
The Flood of November 3-4, 1927 stands as the greatest disaster in Vermont history. Devastation occurred throughout the state, with 1285 bridges lost as well as countless numbers of homes and buildings destroyed and hundreds of miles of roads and railroad tracks washed out. The flood waters claimed 84 lives, including that of the Vermont Lieutenant Governor at the time, S. Hollister Jackson. An account of the flooding across the state, written by Luther B. Johnson, at the time editor of the Randolph Herald, was published in 1928. His account was republished in 1996 by Greenhills Books of Randolph Center. The following information comes from the above book as well as The Vermont Weather Book, by David LudlamThe New England Hurricane of 1938 (or Great New England Hurricane, Yankee Clipper, Long Island Express, or simply the Great Hurricane)
Vermont
The hurricane slammed into Vermont as a Category 1 storm at approximately 6:00 pm EDT.[8] Hurricane-force winds caused extensive damage to trees, buildings, and power lines. Over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of public roads were blocked, and it took months for crews to reopen some of the roads. Despite the damage, the storm killed only five people in Vermont.[23] Until Hurricane Irene in 2011 (which had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it struck Vermont), the 1938 hurricane was the only tropical cyclone to make a direct hit on Vermont in its recorded history.
Below: I come to find out there is only one thermal expansion joint on a bridge. I never checked the Brattleboro side of the bridge. You got to zing along the Archery side of Bridge Street to get to the south side footing. It is high up in the air and a lot of water down below. So you need to jump down on top of the huge truss arch...then jump down into a lower level of the footing. It is very difficult to climb back up, but any kid to do it with ease. You stick your head and camera into a little hole directly under the roadbed. This is where the large deck iron beams with plates get bolted to the concrete footing. This a 1920 rendition of a large concrete anchor bolt...basically concrete rebar that has been threaded. Today they use j bolts or better so this device can't be pulled out of the concrete without using massive force.
Looking straight ahead is basically looking at the basement floor of Co-Op if you go far enough. So I verified both sides of the deck are bolted into the their respective footing. This is the kind of massive damage you would expect to see without having a temperature expansion joint.
Look at how that base metal plate has been delaminated by the moisture and rust...look at how the thick and really large plate is bent?
I bet you I am one of only a handful of people in the USA over the 90 years life of the bridge have ever seen this..I am showing you all a very rare opportunity. The hanging bridge NHDOT inspection basket was parked temperately only a few yards from this. I would like to know the mechanism that created this round hole in the concrete and chipped off this large section of concrete. I don't see any rebar embedded in this concrete do you?
This has been too insignificant to ever get documented thought any extremely strict NH state bridge safety codes and certainly doesn't rise to the point of "minor deterioration" documented in this inspection cycle.
Note: The out of kilter Hinsdale side rollers-pad issue and Brattleboro side naked footing anchor bolt and bent massive iron plate are all on the same side. They are on the south side of the bridge. Was there at one point severe bridge damage...where the whole bridge tilting unnaturally to the south.
Did the wind do it?(Picture added March 30, 2013)
The below is the south side main beam...the whole of the bridge road bed is directly connected to this beam across the full length of the bridge. There is only two of these main beams on the bridge, on each side. Hope you can swim! This is really a thick plate of metal...
My senior NHDOT engineer buddy said this guy passed the bridge inspection last week with flying colors...as good as new...good for another 29 years without inspection. Don't even have to repair this guy for the foreseeable future!
Our federal bridge comic book inspection codes say this is perfectly acceptable...according to federal and state bridge safety regulation, this is strictly defined as much less than "minor deterioration".
This could be our new bridge? This is the bottom of the east side of the Chesterfield NH Navy Seebees route 9 bridge. Go Navy! About 5 mile north of the Brattleboro bridge. In these darkened shadows, this is about the sexiest thing I have seen in a month. Maybe a year!
The worst invention of the world has been spray paint! Tattoos I am not so sure?
(Picture added March 31, 2013)
So the below picture I took within 12 hours with the stop of rainfall in the remnants of Hurricane Irene...around Aug 28, 2011. See this white foamy stream in the outfall of the Whetstone Brook heading around the corner to a down stream destination unknown Connecticut River? I can't get this out of my head. I remember when this foamy trail was home debris; two by fours, plywood, propane gas tanks, mattresses, refrigerators...everything floatable you would expect to see in your house. The stuff of our lives was just floating down the river?
I remember again looking at the swollen Connecticut River further downstream across from our boat landing. A mysterious living, twirling and snakey dark thread just showed in the middle our Connecticut River...going down and up the full length of our river. It seemed like our river was split exactly right down the middle. It was the stuff of all of our lives being washed away during the ends of Hurricane Irene. We could all hear the enormous roaring noise echoing off our mountains, all throughout our valley if you listened carefully. The Vernon dam flood gates were fully open and all this excessive flow and housing debris was being flung onto the rocks to the lower pool.
The peak flood stage of the Connecticut River in this below picture had yet arrived. The flow of the Whetstone has subsided...we hadn't yet seen the full brunt of the flood stage. This flood stage in my picture is clearly above the concrete footing lower facade and deep into the granite blocks with big cracks. The flow of the flooded river was impinging on and into the large cracks between the blocks. Think about all the similar flooding...Irene was a local flood and not a regional issue.
In Hinsdale, we had a little flooding, but it was not as near severe as Vermont. Over the life of the bridge, we had a lot higher floods. Who is to say the sinking and shifting dirt around and underneath of our bridge entrance and footing during our floods hasn't caused or made worst the ground movement? What will our changing world throw at us in the next 20 years?
I bet you the freezing and thawing ground in the winter around this also caused significant damage.
Remembering the National Guard being stationed in our own streets in the bleak Oct 2005 flooding event over a freak rainstorm generated by another hurricane...the route 63 stream flooding events and wiping out the culvert across main street. We all have been warned over and over again. Remember the assortment of flooding events ringing Keene and beyond in recent years. This caused us significant transportation discomfort and it has been very expensive.
I suspect the was footing and ground damage done in the past flooding events when the bridge wasn't protected by the current third world and half ass fixer-up concrete bridge flood protestion scheme...
(Picture added March 30, 2013)
I bet the NHDOT is really on my side. They are limited by the crazy politics isnConcord. If they say boo, these politicians would fire them or you never get promoted. We have to severely attack the agency in order to solve this. This is a really regrettable part of my activities because the vast amount NHDOT employees are good people and we are all forced to feed our families and provide for them. It is really, really really sad sad on my end! It is the system that is as rotten as these bridges, the people in the agency are totally reclaimable.They all have really done some bad things...they lied to themselves and all the good people who supports them.
The below picture comes from the US Navy Seebees route 9 bridge between Brattleboro and Chesterfield. This is how the new civil engineers' think about the importance of temperature expansion joints. The picture doesn't show justice with really how large this is.
So the Navy Seebees bridge specs are:
Length: about the same as my bridge at 340 feet from footing to footing.This guy effortlessly is going to last way past 100 years....
Huge Arch Truss: 40 inches by 90 inch box...they used 2 inch thick metal making the box.
(Picture added March 30, 2013)
This below is the typical state of the art craft in using granite blocks circa 1930...it is magnificent craftsmanship. It is the Brattleboro Putney Road railroad tracks West River bridge. The deterioration above this frightens me. But see how straight the lines are and how tight the cracks are. This isn't even close to how the Brattlebore bridge footing looks. This is really beautiful workmanship.
(Picture added March 30, 2013)
Thermal Stress and Strain (Page 11)
"Bridges require expansion joints (roller pads or rockers)"
We have a much higher delta temp...but the bridge expansion from say 0 to 90 degrees for a 310 foot bridge is 2 inches. God only knows what the force is to the footing or the dangerous flexing of the bridge over and over through the seasonal temperature if it was stiff and not on roller pads. I got pictures of the defective roller pads and the NHDOT must have known.
It was a totally civil and bridge engineering negligence...the NHDOT totally bypassed the rockers or rollers by hard bolting the deck I beams to the footing. It is utter engineering negligence.
When was the last time the NHDOT greased the Anna Hunt Marsh bridge roller pads...
I got a chance of taking out this regional NHDOT almost certainly and maybe even the whole state Department Of Transportation over a scandal of epic proportions...
Mike Mulligan on Sept 13, 2011 on the Hinsdale side of the Anna Hunt Marsh bridge.
I warned you! Quote:
"Who knows when it might ca, collapse?"
"On the dirt right here, I can feel the vibrations of the logging tractor trailer who is still on the bridge."We are only talking about the Brattleboro-Anna Hunt Marsh bridge below...on the Hinsdale side below...
This is the north bridge-truss rocker pad for thermal expansion. I think the bolts are broken and it is immovable. But look at how perfectly parallel the rocker pads or two roller pads are to the huge iron plate below it. This alignment is a beautiful sight. This is where the bridge sits on the concrete footing on this corner of the bridge. The darken rust at the bottom is where they greased this in the distant past.
Remember this end of the bridge has all passed recent inspection...
Below:
This is the south bridge pad or rocker device...we are looking south down river. Look at how this thing is really off kilter to the iron plate below it? That closest rocker sticks way outside the plate and the other one sits a lot inside the plate. The footing and earth below this side of the bridge is sinking down and sliding towards the south. It has got to be river sand and mud below the whole concrete and granite bridge blocks...this side of the bridge is sinking into the sand and mud.
I'll bet you the huge bolts holding the rocker to the iron plate and concrete are severely rusted and broken. Collective the bolts and nuts holding this bridge together are degraded by 50% or more.
The whole approach for 50 to 60 feet before the east side of the bridge subsiding into the Connecticut River east river bank. The vibrations of the big trucks are causing this. The south side of this entrance is subsiding worst and bulging direly in the southern direction. This edge of the bridge is sinking and moving in a southerly direction due to the heavy truck and vehicle traffic vibrations. That is why the roller these pads are severely off kilter...
Notice that severe alkali–silica crumbling concrete in the bottom far right...just below this bridge pad. There are only four pads on this bridge. This concrete under the top concrete pad is severely crumbling...the large granite bridge block is all out of kilter and displaced. Who the hell knows what's under all of it.
The rocker pads in the above picture are just below this huge bridge truss nut. This below is the south outside side of this bridge...we are looking north towards the bridge. Take a look at these unprofessional nuts and granite block anchoring device.
Below:
The two rusty threaded anchoring rods and nuts are holding the granite blocks from sliding out from each other. These ginned up threaded anchoring rods are trying to hold the top granit block from sliding off the huge one below it. It is as if we live in the rinky rinky third world of engineering.
Catch the severely crumbling concrete under this bridge pad and truss...the one with a severely off kilter bottom bridge iron plate and cocked roller pads...
For a very long time the NHDOT has known the ground under this pad has been sinking and sliding out from under this corner of the bridge...
Below:
We are looking in a eastward direction on the south side of the bridge entrance ramp...Brattlboro is in our back. These huge granite blocks stacked on top of each other and held together by God knows what are truly the foundation for this bridge. Most of the concrete is just a rather cheap and thin facade on the outside of these huge granite blocks.
What kind of ground or fill are under these blocks constructed in 1920...certainly not bedrock...
This edge guy is sinking and sliding south...
Follow the above iron bridge edging (left) to the top and you get more severely crumbing concrete holding up the bridge pad and rollers. The bridge is full of thin crumbling concrete facades...as in the below.
Right, below, the same severely off kilter roller pads and the iron plate I have talked about before; but look at the severely alkali–silica crumbling concrete surrounding this whole bridge pad. Only four pads are holding up the bride. The whole edge under the pad on all sides are crumbling...under that it's shifting, sinking and sliding. I am not sure if this crumbling concrete is a result of the stress with the sliding ground and granite blocks below this.
Below:
More!
The below is the south side of the entrance ramp to the bride on the Hinsdale side...the bridge going to the left heads to Brattleboro. If you follow the bridge to the right, it will get you to the bum truss pad and the off kilter rocker pads.
Why is there leakage through the concrete blocks...it hasn't rained or snowed in a while? Where it it wet, the cracks in the blocks are widening. It is like the front part of this ramp to the bridge is calfing off. This front part or most westerly part of the structure is sinking into the river bank. The middle line of stone protruding from the bridge, the whole line of straight stone is going at a pretty steep down angle. The whole wall is protruding and bulging away from the main ramp structure and bridge footing. There are widening cracks between blocks. It is indicating poor bridge drainage from above and carrying away dirt, sand and gravel.
Like this below..the ground under these granite blocks are sinking and sliding...
Or this below...
The far end of the bridge entrence is sinking into the river mud and sand,. So is the bridge pad. See the long crack in the concrete and see how the huge granite blocks are widening apart following the same concrete cracks. They tried at one time to fill the cracks between the granite blocks with concrete...but the blocks moved more apart in recent times leading to the large spaces between the blocks. This section is calfing off from the rest...
These cracks along a line are widening...
Much of the concrete in the cracks was added much later than initial construction...this is caused by the shifting ground underneath it all. This crack filler concrete is designed to stop the movement of sand, dirt and fell leaving the area under the bridge footing and undermining the bridge pads. I imagine granite lines were perfectly level and straight when new...these workers are highly skilled at creating perfect stone workmanship in these days. There usually wasn't much separation between the cracks of the granite blocks...they knew large cracks created the possibility of shifting earth behind it. All these wide gaps in the blocks are caused by shifting earth...
Remember me talking about the threaded anchor rods or devices before... you are seeing it from a lower lever now in the below. The NHDOT must have drilled out these the holes for the rods into both or more of the granite blocks to hold them from sliding out from each other.
Below:
These stress fracture cracks in the pavement support my view the end of the ramp at the entrance of the bridge, in the below...the footing is currently in motion...sinking and sliding towards the southwest. There is massively poorly engineered and unstable ground under this road bed!
The footing, ramp and basic road bed are not designed for the level of traffic and weight of all the vehicles passing by. The weight of the big tractor trailers and the severely overweight assortment of other big trucks and the overweigh giant logging trucks and their trailers.... it is causing too much vibrations and it is severely damaging roadbed and the bridge itself.
Both these pictures looks towards Brattleboro to the right...the south entrance and ramp is directly across the road The cracked sinking, sliding and bulging south granite wall is directly across the road and towards the water....
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