Ok, here's a problem for you to solve;

A Backhoe weighing 8 tons is on top of a flatbed trailer and heading east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas.

The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, reinforced with 1 1/2 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a criss-cross pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.

Solve: When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half?? (Assume no effect for headwind and no braking by the driver)

Extra Credit: Solve for the time and distance required for the entire rig to come to a complete stop after hitting the overpass at the speed calculated above?

Yes, you can neglect friction.

Scroll to bottom for answer.


































I couldn't solve it either......but who cares, the pictures are great!

chaikwa.

 

Whoops. Someone is in trouble for that one.

 

had a guy do the samething down here hit about 70. lots of trouble for him and his boss had a ton of dot violations including no cdl. belive it cost a little over 1.5 mill to fix the bridge and it wasnt even as bad as that. by the way that excavator weighs about 16 tons or more

 

Holy crap!

My answer was, "He won't!"

I agree with Josh... that dude is in some deep dung...

 

Hmm, we get them hitting here, I'm sure they're much smaller, but usually booms, cabs or whole loads come off first. Wonder how fast that guy WAS going with an oversized load? Remember when NB131 at 76th st was shut down most of the summer?

 

thats pretty darn impressive. i wonder if the driver felt it. haha

 

He'll be fealing it probably forever.

 

Sure do!

I hope the DOT would have been impressed... the load must have been properly secured because it stayed on the trailer!



chaikwa.

 

Wow!! This is gonna be another one for the "Fail" Thread...

..

 

Yeah, the chain binder company should use it in their ads!

 

I was by there on my way to Ft. Collins when they were repairing it. They had the interstate looped back over to the inside west bound lane for a 1/4 mile in each direction, making both directions one lane for that repair, but in Hays, Ks. traffic is not a problem!!

Those pictures were posted in a construction magazine the month following the accident, don't remember which one.

 

I just got it in an email today and I thought some of you guys might enjoy it.

chaikwa.

 

They had those pictures posted at a power plant I was working at in January. Supposedly the driver was on his cell phones.

 

I bet the cab of the truck had a foul odor after that!!

 

While were on the bridge subject, check this one out..
http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story...ov3V_Elcg.cspx